January Events

Payton and Emma now officially share a room, Megan doesn't have to climb over the port-a-crib anymore to get to her side of the bed. Payton seems to like having her in his room and thankfully they rarely wake each other up.

Payton had a blast playing in the snow with Marcus. He was always wanting to go out with him and help his shovel. Hopefully he will still be willing to help when he is a teenager!


He got to play on the sled with Daddy too.








Payton had his first visit to the dentist and he did really well. He had x-rays and got his teeth cleaned and had no cavities! All the effort it took to pin him down to brush his teeth before bed paid off.







Marcus had a big birthday this year too! He turned 30!! Wow, it was a big one. We made a big deal of it and went to Pizza Factory and bowling at Fats Cats with friends and family to celebrate his big day. It was a blast!
As we were getting ready to leave that night, Payton made Emma laugh (which he is really good at) when they were in their car seats. Megan took a video of the cute moment.

Emma has started doing the fun little balancing act with her Daddy. She loves it! As soon as she gets up there she gets a huge grin and her arms start flying!

Christmas (Better Late than Never!)

Sorry for the huge delay in updating the blog, life has been a little hectic for me and the few spare moments I have had, I chose to pay bills and clean my house instead (shocker, I know). So here you go, here is a glimpse into our Christmas three months ago...

Our attempt to get a cute picture of Payton and Emma in front of the tree before we let him tear into the presents, we'll take what we can get!

Payton was very helpful with Emma and opening her gifts.









He enjoyed helping Marcus too.

Emma enjoyed laying in the mound of wrapping paper.

Payton opened up his stocking and went straight for the chocolate!

Here is Payton and Emma posing with their Christmas goods from Santa and Mom & Dad. We had a great Christmas and it was a lot of fun with Payton knowing about Santa too.


He was so excited when he got the Fire Truck that he asked him for. Emma enjoyed the wrapping paper and the crinkly noises it made.

The "Joy's" of a 2-Year Old

The past week we have had a handful (literately) of joyous parenting experiences...Sometimes I wish I could have Payton unlearn some things like: how to unscrew a lid, how to climb up on objects/dressers, how a box of diapers is really useful to stand on so he can get to the top shelves of his dresser where mom tried to keep things out of reach. Yay! (said with sarcasm)

It started off with Payton attempting to be a nice big brother. He was trying to calm his crying sister while I was getting dressed; but was doing so by putting a pillow over her face because it makes her quiet. YIKES! I leapt over to them, quickly removing the pillow from Emma's face while yelling (I know, bad mom) at Payton telling him how dangerous this is and that he could really hurt his little sister this way. Lesson learned? I sure hope so since they will be sharing a room soon.

A couple days after this Payton is playing in his room having "quiet time" (aka Mom's sanity break) when he comes running down the hall to me holding out his hands saying, "Look, messy!" His hands are covered in chalk that I had put on his highest shelf. Somehow he managed to scale up between Emma's crib and dresser so he could get to it. Great! I go into his room to assess the damages and see lovely chalk art all over his carpet, sheets, and pillow! Yippee! Thankfully bedding is washable and I was able to vacuum most of it out of the carpet. Man I miss him actually taking naps!

Two days later also during "quiet time" I thought Payton was in his room quietly reading his books (that mom was so kind to let him have unsupervised since he thinks it is fun to rip them sometimes) and I am in the kitchen reading some blogs when the dreaded footsteps come running down the hall saying, "Mom, look!" Yup, he has done something again! This time his hands are covered in good ol' scented lotion, along with his pants and shirt sleeves. (I had set some on top of his 5-drawer dresser because I need to clean out the basket they were in, but hadn't gotten to it yet. Procrastination is a bad thing.) I walk down the hall to see what he had done with the lotion and see a nice puddle of it on his carpet and Emma's box of diapers next to his dresser used as a ladder. Oh, wow! I figured I should clean up Payton first so he doesn't get lotion anywhere else in the house. I take him into the bathroom trying to figure out what would be the best way to clean it all off without making a bigger mess. Yet I also wanted to use the "event" as an opportunity to teach him a lesson. As I start to remove his pants he says, "Me don't want to take a shower." Thanks kid!! I tell him he was naughty and got his clothes all messy, so I needed to rinse them off in the shower while he is still wearing them. He immediately starts yelling/crying (which wakes up Emma from he nap an hour early, dang it!) and I put him in the shower and rinse off all the lotion. I discovered this form of torture last week when I asked him to go potty and he decided to pee in his pants while standing right next to the toilet. So I stood him in the tub fully clothed with pee soaked pants and turned on the shower. He did not like it at all, and still doesn't. At this point I have two crying children and lotion soaked carpet, man I love being a mom! Needless to say I managed to calm Emma, explain to Payton that what he did was naughty, and wipe up the lotion. Thankfully, while giving my neighbor a haircut earlier that day, and telling him about the chalk experience, he told me they had a carpet steamer that I could borrow to try and clean out the stains. Little did we know that I would really need it to clean up the lotion later that day. Sheesh! Daddy was the winner that got to do this job, thanks babe!

Among all the recent naughty moments, Payton has also been a good kid. He is pretty much potty trained by the age of 2 1/2. I am still waiting for him to tell me he needs to go, but accidents are pretty rare, even at night, so I can't complain!

He absolutely adores his little sister and she adores him (I never knew that kids could have a connection so quickly, I love it!).

He can get Emma to laugh more than I can.

He is a great helper if I ever need a diaper, wipes, or anything thrown away.

He always makes Marcus and me laugh by doing something goofy and amazes us daily by the stuff he remembers that happened days, weeks, months before.

He is a very observant kid and even though the two's are full of many (very many) challenges, I love seeing how much he has learned and wonder what he is going to pick up on next!

St. George Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went down to St. George with Megan's family. We had 11 adults, 9 kids, and 4 babies all under one roof! It was nice and cozy with the whole family. The moms made sure to come prepared with many crafts/activities for the kids to make sure they wouldn't get too bored and out of control!

Payton had fun giving his cousin Andrew a bottle when he was sad in the highchair and also checking out the caramel pie by sticking his fingers in it when nobody was looking.

Grandma Wendy had lots of fun with all of the grandbabies, one day Emma and Ginger wore pink striped outfits to match her!

The men had fun playing some video games while the women were in the kitchen baking some pies! Even Megan's parents got in on the action!

After the hours of baking ;) we got to enjoy the yummy Thanksgiving feast! We stuffed our faces (literally) and ate lots of pie. Thank goodness this only comes around once a year!

Potty Training Advice Needed!

So Payton is getting close to 2 1/2 years old now and we are sick of changing his poopy diapers! We are hoping to start potty training him after Thanksgiving, but it is our first time so we don't really know where to start. We could really use advice and pointers from anyone who has some experience in this area. He is interested in wearing underwear like his cousin Kayden and no more diapers, so hopefully this will help him along the way. Please leave us comments with your advice on this lovely subject! Thanks!

Emma's Blessing

We blessed Emma on Sunday, November 2nd. All of the family came over before church for our little gathering. Emma looked so beautiful in her dress, thanks to her Aunt Cheri in Georgia that made it for her! (Thanks again Cheri!!)

Payton loved having his cousins at his house to play with and to sit by at church. It was a pretty fun day for him too.




Megan's brother Jeff and wife Heather also blessed their baby Ginger on the same day! It was pretty cool to share the special day with them. They had their family gathering after church, so we all got to go to both.
Cute little baby Emma and Ginger both looked so beautiful. They were both very good and slept through the blessings their dads gave them. No screaming babies for the microphone to pick up here! :)











Four generations of women. Emma, Megan, Wendy, and Grandma LaRene.

Halloween

Payton and Megan carved the pumkin this year. This was the first time that Payton really got to help. He was very hesitant at first to put his hand in and pull out the pumkin goop. Mommy is not a big fan of messes, so he didn't think it would be okay. But he did think it was pretty cool that she would put her hands in it and that she would let him do it too.

Payton was a little Swiss boy and Emma was a cute little bumblebee. We taught Payton how to yodel, and also say trick-or-treat. He thought it was pretty cool that people would give him candy and that mommy and daddy actually let him eat some of it!

We got together with the Haroldsen family and had all the grandkids in their costumes. Tanner and Payton both had on their leiderhosen that MOH and Kimberly got them from Switzerland last year. They looked pretty darn cute together!

Family Update

Payton is finally learning how to be a little softer with his sister, slowly but surely! He loves to give her hugs and kisses all the time. If he walks into the room with me and I am not holding Emma, he is quick to look around and see where she is. I think he likes having her around.

Payton ran out the door one day and decided he wanted to ride the Jetski's in our driveway. Who say's you need a big lake to have fun on one of these?

Cute baby Emma in her bath and posing with her Daddy after. She is getting so big so fast!

If you ever come over to our house, Payton would love to show you his new bed! He has had it for a few months, but we are under the impression that he REALLY likes it and always wants people to see it. It is very cute! He also likes to sleep between the bed and the wall sometimes, why sleep on it when you can squish next to it?

Emma has the cutest little cry, she sounds so girly. Here is a little clip of it. Notice what Payton says in the background at the beginning, funny kid.

In case you can't understand him, he says "Baby Emma, stop!" If Emma cries too much (which is not very often) he usually says that, but she rarely listens. :)

Emma's First Month

Here is a glimpse into Emma's first month in this world.

This is Emma's first ride in her carseat and then how she looks in it at one month. She is definately not having any problems gaining weight. At her two weeks appointment she had grown two inches and gained 1 lbs. 5 oz!

Taking a nap in her crib.

Our new family of four! Megan's dad made this stork to put in our yards whenever a baby is born announcing their arrival, it is a dutch thing.

Payton loves his little sister, but he is still learning how to be soft with her and that he is not allowed to pick her up, lay on her, or hit her. Though he doesn't seem to mind sharing with her, one day he decided to give her his puppy and "nigh', nigh'" because she was sleeping. It was very sweet. He has also tried sharing his goldfish and cherry tomatoes with her...

Our sweet baby girl is a little angel. She is sleeping 6 hours at night between feedings, she rarely cries, and she is very mellow. She seems to have her mommy's personality! (Megan is very happy about this, Payton wears her out!) Emma also showed us her first real smile at one month! Megan was lucky enough to actually get a picture of it!