Sorry about my lack of a Christmas blog, most of us in the Hall household have been sick, sick, sick... 'tis the season I guess! Poor Payton got really sick last week, it was awful. She wasn't getting better on the antibiotics, and so I took her back to the doctor. Turns out, whatever she had was resistant to that particular antibiotic, so she still had an ear infection and was absolutely miserable. At that point she was also so congested that she was wheezing and breathing really fast. It was really scary, I hated seeing her like that! We ended up taking her to urgent care the next night (her doctor's office was too hard to get a hold of because everyone was at a Christmas party, go figure) and they gave her a nebulizer treatment and some albuterol and she has been MUCH better. She's practically a new baby! However, once she started to get better I started to get sick... I actually had to call in sick to work on Monday, which I have never done in my working career. Still not better unfortunately, but managing to make it through the day. But enough about that stuff, let's talk Christmas!

I headed up to Gig Harbor with Payton Christmas Eve morning, and we got there bright and early. Kyle came up as soon as he got off work. We always do Christmas Eve with the Book family, and we were so thankful that we could all be together this year. Grandma has done great since her surgery! Two weeks after brain surgery and she's walking and talking like you'd never know it. She is one amazing lady :) It was fun to watch Payton open gifts, she's funny because she would rip off one piece of wrapping paper and then play with that one piece. We would try to encourage her to open the rest, but only one piece at a time please! She ended up getting a little overwhelmed with everything, she got a LOT of gifts last weekend. Not that we're complaining :) She eventually went to bed, and we continued Christmas Eve downstairs. It was a great holiday as always!

My new stocking (thanks GiGi!) with my mommy and daddy's

Hanging with mommy!

I was VERY interested in the dogs this weekend. My mom and grandma are trying to teach me the word "gentle" because I like to swat at them.

Getting lots of love from Auntie Chelsea!

Opening my Christmas gifts

A holiday tradition... Christmas pajamas from Grandma! Payton got Christmas jammies from her OWN grandma this year... the tradition continues!

The next morning everyone got up with the baby, we were all excited to experience her first Christmas morning with her. We opened our stockings, and then exchanged gifts by the tree. All of the excitement tired her out pretty quick; she was only able to stay awake about two hours in between naps! We had a relaxing day lounging around the house, then headed to my Aunt Tawnya and Uncle David's for dinner and Christmas with the Casebolts. By that point Payton was a pro at this gift thing! Her cousin McKenna helped unwrap all her gifts.

Opening my stocking Christmas morning with my daddy!

The "kids"...

This is fun guys!

I got a BIG present!

It's MINE! lol :)

My mom and dad got this neat gift that will let them take me on hikes and stuff!

Giggling with Grandpa Scott

Hall family :)

My adorable outfit on Christmas day!

Playing with my new kitchen

Kyle headed back to Portland Christmas night because he had to work the next day, but Payton and I stayed at my parent's house through Sunday. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but then again it always seems like holidays fly by way too fast. It was also great being able to spend so much time with my sister; I don't get to see her nearly enough! But before I knew it, it was time to head back to the real world... thank you to everyone who made such a memorable and fun first Christmas for Payton!

A lot of exciting changes have been happening around here, including a really big one... Kyle and I have decided to move. I got offered a job at Albany General Hospital, and I decided to accept it last week. It will be a big change for us, but a very positive one I think. Kyle and I have been wanting to move to a smaller town with less traffic and congestion ever since we had Payton, and we will definitely get that in Albany. So, my last day at Providence is January 11th, and I start at Samaritan on January 17th! It was a hard decision to make, I love my co-workers a lot and it's going to be very hard to leave them. Kyle and I aren't sad to get out of Portland though, and we know we will have more time together and support in Albany. I'll discuss our move in much more detail in a later post!

In other exciting news, Payton is finally starting to really crawl a little bit, exactly one month after she started to army crawl. She will only do it a little bit so far though, and then drop to her stomach and scoot along. At this point, it's much faster for her :) I even got it on video!



We're taking off in just a little bit for Sunriver to spend New Year's with both sides of the family, which is awesome. I can't wait! Just waiting for Payton to wake up from her nap, and then we'll get going. I can't believe tomorrow is already 2011, it seems unreal. As usual though, it's shaping up to be a very exciting year for the Hall family! :)

Happy New Year everyone, I'll blog again soon!

First Christmas

It has been very busy around the Hall household, getting ready for Payton's first Christmas. Kyle has been working almost every day, I think he's going to be glad once the craziness of Christmas shopping dies down a little bit. It's a catch 22 though, because we're glad he's working so much. This post is going to include a lot of video, hope everyone is ok with that :) We finally got our tree up, and we had Payton help us put her first ornament on the tree before she went to bed. She loves to stare at it!

What is this you guys??

I think I like it!

Hmmm... I want to explore...

Mom and Dad's greatest gift :)

The finished product!



On Friday Payton and I headed down to Albany for the Hall family Christmas, Kyle came separately once he got off work. We did our Christmas exchange that night, and Payton opened her first Christmas presents. She was funny, she looked pretty bewildered that so much attention was on her, and there was so much for her to look at. She liked ripping the paper, but not as much as the bows; she went straight for those! She got lots and lots of presents, and we still have another Christmas next weekend at my parents :) After that it was her bedtime, so we put her to bed and continued our Christmas in the family room. It was a fun night!

We all just hung around the house on Saturday, and that night at dinner Payton finally said the word that was magic to my ears... MAMA! I was so excited I cried, kind of silly but I feel like I've been waiting to hear it forever. Bryan got video of it, but for some reason it's not uploading so I will try again tomorrow. Payton now says mama, dada, baba. She's eating more and more table foods, tonight she had peas and carrots, and she's also tried little bites of mom's grilled cheese and even a cinnamon roll. She likes to munch on cheerios and graham crackers, and we put just a smidge of juice in her sippy cup this weekend and she loved it. Her teacher Sherry told me that they offered her some peaches the other day, and she ate those up too.

Payton got sent home from Wee Care again on Thursday with a fever. She had a little bit of one the night before, but she seemed fine so I thought it may be teething. When they called to tell me about it, it was about 100 so they were just monitoring it. They called back and said she had to go home because it was 102, and by the time Kyle got there it was almost 104. So I called her doctor's office and they got us right in, one of the reasons I love them! She has her first ear infection :( That's actually pretty amazing, considering she's almost 10 months old! She's on some antibiotics and eardrops, and has had a rough couple nights (which means that Kyle and I have also had a rough couple nights) but hopefully it will get better soon! She's also had a cough, which I think is what is actually bothering her the most because it wakes her up at night. 'Tis the season unfortunately!

So my great plans for our first family Christmas card unfortunately have not happened yet. I wanted to get one of us at the Christmas tree farm, and then when that couldn't happen I just wanted one in front of the tree, but we haven't had very much time together so... I hope everyone loves the idea of a New Year's card! :)

Payton giving a high five!

Payton and I are headed up to my parent's on Christmas Eve, once again Kyle will join us once he's off work. I can't wait, it's going to be fun! We're going to be there the whole weekend, visiting lots of family. I hope everyone has a great Christmas surrounded by their loved ones :)

Get well soon Grandma!

It's amazing how busy this time of year gets, time is just flying by. Christmas is in 11 days?!?!

Our family spent the weekend in Washington visiting my grandmother. She had brain surgery on Thursday to remove a large tumor, and thankfully she has been doing well. To one of the sweetest, kindest, funniest, most generous people I have ever met -- get well soon Grandma! We are all thinking of you and praying for you, and we can't wait to see you for Christmas. Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to us!

Payton is doing great, she's getting so big. We taught her to high five, which is so cute! She loves any toys that she can shake and make noise, and she also loves to try and crawl towards cords, laptops, cell phones, outlets... she's keeping us busy! I think she understands the word "no", although she doesn't really heed it. When I say it to her she stops what she's doing and looks at me, then gets this little smile on her face and goes right back to what she was doing. She's been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, so "traditional" crawling may be around the corner... although Payton hasn't really done anything the traditional way! :) Diaper changes and getting dressed are becoming a big challenge, she just does not want to sit still long enough and immediately flips over when she's placed on her back. She is officially a Dragonfly today, no longer a Ladybug. I'm excited for her to join a class with older babies, I think she'll enjoy their activities more. She loves group time, when they read a book or sing songs with everyone. They also do lots of art projects and stuff, so I think she'll have a great time. We had her LAST dermatology appointment yesterday at OHSU. Yay! He lowered her dose, which we're going to continue for one month. After that we will only give it to her once a day for two weeks, then every other day for two weeks... and then stop! So only two more months of propranolol, which is a weird thought. He said we don't really need to come back to see him unless we notice any bulging around her eye or a lot of regrowth. He also mentioned that if the superficial part of the hemangioma persists we could potentially have it lasered off, but the earliest he would do that would be 2 years old. I don't anticipate us doing anything like that, but we'll see how it looks before she starts school and make a decision then. Hopefully it continues to just go away! We are so thankful that this medication exists (and the fact that it's really cheap didn't hurt either). It's amazing the difference it's made, but we are also thankful that it will soon be over!

Kyle is going to get us a Christmas tree after work today, life got too busy and we didn't make it to a tree farm like I had planned. Oh well, there's always next year :) I'll definitely post pics of our lights, tree and house decorations when I find my camera... it might have gone missing, which is funny because it's usually attached to my right hand. Don't worry though, it can't be too far away! As soon as I find it I will post lots of pictures. We have a little fake tree downstairs as a decoration, and Payton loves looking at it, she breaks into a big smile when she sees it; I think she will be really wowed by a big tree!

This weekend we're doing Christmas at the Hall household, which will be fun. I'm excited to watch Payton tear some wrapping paper! I think she will probably enjoy that just as much as the actual gift. She looooooooooves paper. It tears, it crinkles, it bends, it rips... what's not to love?!

Today is Kyle's birthday! He is 26, which he says sounds so much older than 25 :) When I met him he was just 20, which is funny to think. Happy birthday hubby!

Pictures

I have THREE new teeth coming in -- one more on the bottom, and two on the top!

Standing all by myself!

I'm gonna come get you mom!

I was looking through some older pictures the other day, and I was amazed at how much she has grown just by looking at her in her car seat! This is 6 months...

...and nine months! She's almost at the height requirement for her carseat, so she'll probably be getting a big girl one around the time she turns a year old.

Was she really ever this little?!

Grandma we are thinking of you all the time and are praying for a smooth recovery. I love you so much; you are the toughest woman I know!

Growing girl!

I took Payton to her 9 month well check at the pediatrician today, and it went great! She's a big girl. She weighed 22 pounds even (about the 94th percentile), and is 29 inches long (about the 96th percentile!) The nurse measured her length twice because she thought there was no way she'd grown that much! They said she's about the size of an average one-year-old. She's grown four inches and gained four pounds in about three months. Her head circumference was 19 inches, which was off the charts for girls, in almost the 100th percentile. No wonder it's getting harder to carry her around :) Her doctor was really impressed with what the propranolol has done, and said she's right on track developmentally. She got just one shot, the last of her hep B series. She didn't cry, but she did give the nurse a really big pout and a glare!

I went to my appointment in this new outfit my daddy got me!