Merry Christmas to all...

It's still hard to believe that Christmas is upon is, isn't it? The year 2011 has come and almost gone. I was reflecting just the other day on what an intense year this has been for us; it has been full of so many ups and downs. It all started with us making a major life changing decision and moving to Albany in January. It meant leaving a job and people that I loved and moving in with my husband and our baby into his parents house, and starting new jobs. The following month our little girl turned a year old, which was a huge milestone. In April Kyle graduated with his Master's degree, and finished his student teaching in June. In May my sweet grandmother lost her long and hard fought battle with cancer. She was one of the kindest, most generous, wonderful women I've ever known, and her death has really affected me. I had always counted on her as one of the most supportive and important people in my life, so to lose her was devastating. I think about her daily, and I always will. In June we finally decided to put our house in Portland on the market; it would take five months for it to sell, but was definitely one of the hightlights of the year! In September Kyle started officially teaching at his alma mater, West Albany high school. It was the culmination of many years of hard work, and he loves what he does. In October we closed on our home in Albany, and moved out of Rick and Sue's. It was nice to be in our own place again, but bittersweet because we had such a great time staying there with them, and they were so wonderful to us by taking us in until we got on our feet. Which brings us to now... I'm not going to lie, I am excited for 2012. I hope it brings prosperity and peace to all!

We've already been in our new house 2 months now, and finally starting to feel settled in with all of the improvements. Our new carpet arrived a few weeks ago and has made a HUGE difference! It looks nice, but more importantly the house smells so much nicer. You're not assaulted by the smell of cat pee every time you walk in the door. 100% worth it!

Ahhh, new carpet. I swear the wall isn't that bright, my camera's flash makes it look funny.

The new carpet in Payton's room

Our stockings :)
e hallway


My grandpa dug this out of his attic, it's a table and chairs that Chelsea and I used to use. Payton loves it!

This is the face she made when I told her to say "cheese!" (with her baby of course!)

Payton has been so much fun to watch, she is saying SO MUCH these days. If you haven't seen her in a while, you would be amazed at how much she's developed! Every morning I get her up, we go down the hallway and she says "Tree! Tree! Hi tree!" We went for a walk tonight and she had to say hello to everything. "Hi bush! Hi car! Hi truck!" It is super cute, she pretty much chatters nonstop. She can sing her abc's all the way through, and even count to ten. She likes identifying everything and everyone. If we're in a room with a bunch of people, she will go around and say hello to each of us, mutliple times. She's getting pretty bossy too :) We jump when she says jump, literally! She loves her books and her babies, and spends most of her time playing with them or following us around. She likes to be doing what we're doing, whether it be laundry, cleaning, getting dressed, you name it. She repeats everything, she seems like such a little sponge. Last weekend we took her to a place called The Little Gym in Corvallis. It's a class where the kids are in a certain age group (Payton's is 19 months to 2 1/2, they're called "beasts"). They sing songs, tumble, play, throw balls, identify colors, that sort of thing. She's usually pretty shy with new people, but after the introductory song she was up and running! She had SO much fun, and Kyle and I had so much fun watching her. We will definitely be going again! Her favorite part was when they had a big parachute that the kids all got to slide on and go under. She was laughing hysterically, it was so cute.

So I know I never posted Thanksgiving pictures (I'm lame). Here are a few for you!

Snuggling with Grandma Jo

Singing songs with cousin Kyanne!

Reading with cousin McKenna

A very special tradition... Great grandpa Book reading Hucklebones

Grandma got me a new purse

See my pretty bracelet?

One of the highlights of the weekend; Zoolights!











Checking out the fish tank...

We had a great weekend! It went by waaaay too fast. Back at home...

Supervising daddy putting up the Christmas lights

I love this one :)

So much fun to explore

We took Payton to an event called Storybook Land that they do every year at Christmas the expo center. It's free, and it's really neat for kids. Payton loved it!



Kyle and I are so excited to watch Payton enjoy Christmas this year. It seems like forever ago that we bought her gifts, and we can't wait to watch her face when she gets to open them. Her big gift from Kyle and I is a big girl kitchen, which we think she will love. The ladies at her daycare told us that she's pretty obsessed with thiers, so I think she'll love having one at home. We were watching home videos from last years Christmas and it is amazing how different Payton is in just a year. Last year she just sat there and stared at everyone; I can only imagine what she will be like this year! Running around, laughing, talking up a storm. We can't wait! :)

Merry Chirstmas everyone! We will miss you Casebolts/Books/Walkers/Cooks. Wish we could be there!

And congratulations to Richard and Chelsea, the future Mr. and Mrs. Falk!!! :)

So much to be thankful for!

Sooooooooooo... wow. I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted anything! I logged on to my blog and did a double take when I realized it had been (yikes!) almost 4 weeks. I have so much news to report on, so let's get started!

Wonderful wonderful wonderful news... we have OFFICIALLY and FINALLY sold our house in Beaverton! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! We feel so blessed that we don't have to worry about it anymore. It's DONE, and we even closed before our first mortgage payment on our home in Albany is due, so we never had to pay two mortgages. We feel so incredibly lucky; I know so many people having the same problems we were having, and although we did have to take a little bit of a loss, we still feel really blessed to escape that situation and start fresh. Now we really feel like we can take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy our new home. Speaking of...

We've already been in our new house over a month already! It's coming together slowly but surely. I've held off on posting pictures because I wanted to show it with the new carpet (which is coming in a week!). We've absolutely loved living here so far. I'll post a few pics, before and after.

Master bedroom before with random person's stuff...

...after! Still a work in progress. Please ignore the boxes, this was actually taken a couple weeks ago.

Payton's room before...

...and after! It turned out pretty cute!

Kitchen

Deck

Nice big backyard!

The house itself

The neighborhood looking down the street... ahhh suburbia :)

I promise I'll post more pictures of the rooms as they become more complete!

Payton's language skills have really taken off this month. She's starting to formulate sentences, and repeats basically everything we say. And when I say everything, I mean everything! The other day when we were out on an evening walk Kyle jokingly pretended to trip Payton while she was walking. I said "Kyle!", and Payton stopped, turned towards her dad and said "Kyle!" He was not too amused :) She's doing a lot of singing too, well enough so that you can usually tell what songs she's singing. She can sing "twinkle, twinkle", "baa baa black sheep", "abc's", and is even learning to count. She is getting much better at communicating her wants and needs, which is making everyones life a little easier. If I ask her to clean up her toys, she will say "Payton clean up!", or if I told her dad is at home, she will say "Daddy home". It's so amazing to watch those wheels start turning in their brains when they realize that they can speak and have us understand. I can't wait for her to experience the holiday season too. Kyle and I are so excited about Christmas, we have to keep reminding ourselves to rein it in a little bit. She's not even two, she won't remember! Yet we want to buy out the whole store and shower her with gifts. We've already bought a big girl kitchen for her to play at (she's obsessed with playing grown up) and a Disney princess couch for her to lounge on. We just need to grab a few stocking stuffers, and we're done! Until I find something I just have to have :)

My sweet little bookworm

I'll help you grade daddy!

Hmmm...

F! Just kidding :)

We had a great vacation in Gig Harbor for Thanksgiving, I was really sad to leave and get back to real life. I haven't uploaded all of my pictures from this weekend yet, and it's getting pretty late and I'm on call so I think I'm going to hit the hay and blog that stuff another time. Soon, I promise. It was a fun filled weekend, so lots to blog about. Hope you all have a great week!

Trick or treat!

We had a busy Halloween, but a great first time trick or treating! Payton was ADORABLE in her costume, she was a little bumblee! I had to work until 6:00, so I rushed home, we quickly ate dinner and off we went!

I'm ready to go trick or treating guys!

Aren't I so CUTE?!?!

Payton got really excited to go outside and walk, she loves walking around. She walked up to people's doorsteps with us, but got really shy when they answered the door. We went to a few houses in our new neighborhood, and then decided to take the show on the road. We ended up trick or treating at Grandma Sue's house, Great Grandma Joy's, Aunt Pam's, Uncle Bryan and Aunt Lindsey's, and several friends on the way. It was an exhausting night, but it was fun for so many people to see Payton trick or treat! Next year we will definitely be sticking to our neighborhood though :) Payton was really funny, she wouldn't really take the candy out of the bowl (although she took more than half of Rick and Sue's!) In fact at one of the houses she took some animal crackers out of her bag and put them back in the candy bowl!

















Charlie was a bumbleebee too!

That's one tired trick or treater... :)

I think Payton really enjoyed it, she even wanted to put her costume on again the next day. Plus she slept in until after 8am, an added bonus!

It's been a while...

What an exhausting last couple weeks this has been! Kyle and I have actually moved quite a lot together in the past few years, but it's a whole new ball game when you have a child. I can do without if I forget something like my cell phone charger, but P-Marie comes with a lot of luggage, and all of it seems important to me and I don't want to forget anything. We had been moving little bits at a time, mostly going over there and working for a few hours after Payton goes to bed, but I didn't want to move all of Payton's stuff until we were ready. We officially stayed for the first time last week, and I was really worried about how she would react to a new room and a new routine. We put her to bed at her normal time though, and she has slept until 7:00 every morning without a peep! I was so relieved, and hope that the transition continues to be this easy for her. It has been very strange for me to wake up and have it be just Payton and I; I'm so used to lots of people around that it seems very weird. There's a big part of me that was really sad to leave Rick and Sue's house; I was so comfortable there, and I have such a great relationship with them that it was like living with some of my closest friends. I know we only moved 5 minutes away, but it will never be the same again and a part of me was really sad about that. We're also really excited though to finally feel settled here, and to make our own home. Payton and I had a fun morning together the first day we were here; after she ate breakfast (her favorite is "goki" which in Payton talk means yogurt), she wandered around the house opening all the different cupboards, drawers, just checking everything out. We even went for a little walk in our new neighborhood, except she didn't want to go in the stroller. She wanted to push her own baby down the sidewalk, thank you very much! :)

Walking her baby down the street

Big girl with her "goki" :)

She is such a big girl it's amazing. She is a copycat these days, and will imitate anything you do or say. This evening I was mopping the kitchen floor, and all of a sudden Payton is behind me. She had grabbed a diaper wipe and started wiping down the floor with me! Her favorite activies are helping load the dishwasher, washing her hands, helping with laundry, throwing her own diapers away, brushing her own hair, putting dirty clothes in the hamper... she is hilarious! Very independent, but if you put her in a room of people she's not familiar with, she will cling to me or Kyle like glue. Her talking is getting so much better, and it is so fun to really be able to communicate with her. She can say some of her favorite foods (and ask for them!) like "goki", "nanana", and "nack" (for snack). I was shocked the other day when I burped in front of her and she turned to me and said "scuse you!" :) She is still very into her babies, and will kiss them and pat their backs when she picks them up. She loves wrapping them up in kitchen dish towels, so I find those all over the house! We call them Payton trails. She's 20 months old today, and just doesn't look like a baby anymore. Sue was saying how she was looking at Bryan and Lindsey's wedding video, and Payton had just turned a year old. She looked so much more little and chubby! She has really thinned out and looks like a lean, active toddler. Her hair just keeps getting longer and longer (and curlier and curlier). It's actually pretty long when we're washing it, but once we're out of the tub it curls right up. She definitely gets that from her daddy!

My mom came down last weekend, which was wonderful. Her and Chelsea came down the weekend before as well to help us move, but I enjoy spending time with them so much that I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to :) It was a dry day so we took the opportunity to head out to the pumpkin patch!

Haha doesn't she look thrilled?! :)



This one looks good mom!

Picking a pumpkin with Grandma Jo







It was fun, although Payton fell pretty hard right in the dirt near the end (poor thing). She was fine a minute later though! We got her three little pumpkins, and she always touches them as we leave the house. She points to them and says "apple", I have to remind her everytime that they're called pumpkins! :)

Saturday night my mom babysat so that Kyle and I could chaperone homecoming at the high school (chaperoning dances are quickly becoming known as our "date night") The theme was "firehouse", so of course we knew we could count on my dad to hook us up with gear to wear!

Mom, Dad and I before the dance

Representing the Tacoma Fire Department! Woot woot!

The house has been a lot of work, but it's really starting to come together. We have deep cleaned it, shampooed the carpets, installed new blinds, painted several rooms, mopped the garage (it smelled really bad in there because of the previous owners cats but it's a LOT better now), organized box after box after box, and Kyle has even mowed the lawn for the first time! Payton of course had to help. Can't do anything without that girl being all up in our business!

I watched daddy mow the front yard...

... and he let me help in the backyard!

I will post some pictures of the house once I feel like it's a little more presntable, right now it's still a little crazy. Hope everyone is doing well, and you will be hearing from me again soon (I promise I won't let two whole weeks fly by again). Have a great weekend!