Halfway through the second year...

We had quite a busy weekend! Most of it was spent outside, soaking up this beautiful sunshine. Saturday we went to a wedding in St. Paul, where Kyle's fellow civil war reenacter got married. It was a HOT day, full of old friends, kilts andbagpipes!

My strategy during the ceremony; keep her quiet with snacks. She still likes talking though! She turned to her Uncle Bryan during the ceremony and said "hi!" He made the sign to be quiet, so she leaned in close to him and whispered "hi". It was hard not to laugh!

Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Sanford!



Kyle dancing the dollar dance with the bride

Payton loved watching everyone dance!

Father daughter dance

Hehe we told him he was too old for her :)



My big 18 MONTH OLD! :)

We had a great time with everyone, it felt like a reenacter reunion! The next day, we had plans to meet up with the Matthews/Niles family for a get together. They are good family friends of the Halls, they all met while reenacting as well. Their daughter Tara has a little girl who turns 1 in just a couple weeks. We decided to go to Silver Falls Park, the same place we went hiking at the end of June. They have a big picnic area with a water area and a playplace. The perfect place to hang with our little gals!

Always snacking :) I thought her hair looks beautiful in this picture...

Let's play ball!

Aaaaaaaaaaand she's off!

Wait! Where was I going with this??



A girl's gotta rest :)

Blowing kisses to the camera!





Payton and Miss Katelynn!

Checking eachother out







We told her to give Katelynn a kiss lol

Playing with bubbles

She's going for it!

We had a great time talking, eating, and watching our girls play. Payton is getting to the point where she's starting to get a little possessive of her things, which is interesting. She didn't really want Katelynn touching her stuff! She isn't like that with the other kids at school, but I thought maybe it's because it's not her belongings there. Now when you're playing with her things what you hear is "No! Mine!" She's also really into pretending to clean. I was wiping off some of her shoes the other day, and she was just staring at me, mesmerized. I gave her a cloth and she started wiping everything down! She loved it! I'm hoping she still loves it when she's in high school :) Dream on, Mom!

Quarter of a century

As of yesterday, I have been blessed to have lived on this Earth for 25 years. I am so lucky to have so many special family and friends that have loved and supported me throughout all my different stages of life; from child to teenager, college grad to new mom. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, I love you all very much!

My parents and sister came down last weekend to celebrate with me; we had a blast! Plus we got to enjoy red velvet cake, my favorite... yum!

My birthday is significant to me in another way also; it means in a few days, Payton will officially be 18 months old. 18 months ago I was about to give birth to a little girl who would do nothing more than sleep, cry, and poop. Now I'm the mother of a very active and entertaining daughter, who amazes me every single day with how she's developing and learning. She has become very maternal lately, and whereas before she ignored stuffed animals and dolls and could care less for them, now she can't get enough of them! She calls them all her "babies", and carts them around with her everywhere. Someone at daycare told Kyle that she walks around most of the day with a doll in her hand, and even uses blankets and burp clothes to wrap them up in a "blankie". She kisses them, pats them on the back, it is SO adorable. Kyle and I are suckers and bought her a baby doll today complete with a stroller and diaper bag.

Playing with her baby!

Thanks Mommy and Daddy, I love my new stroller!

This weekend we joined the Halls for some camping. We decided to just make a daytrip out of it and relax at home the rest of the time, but we went out to the campground for some river floating and delicious dinner.

Exploring the campsite

FUN!









Kyle is officially done working for the city, and is heading to the high school tomorrow to start to get his classroom together. He is BEYOND excited! He's been working hard for two years to start his career, and now that the moment is here he is itching to get into the classroom. Payton has been visiting the toddler room a lot at daycare, they move the kids up around 18 months so she is the next one to move. She likes it a lot, they tell me she's usually mad if they take her back to the infant room! She's mimicking EVERYTHING these days, even if someone sneezes, which is hilarious. She's also running around everywhere, and therefore a little clumsy. She's at a difficult age to go shopping with, because she wants to touch every piece of clothing, and boy is she mad if you take it away from her! She has her 18 month check-up in a couple weeks, and as always we're really curious to see how tall she is and how much she weighs. She feels like she gets heavier everyday! :)

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer, I will blog again soon!

That's life...

August, is that you? How did you get here so quick?? Seems like just yesterday I was still toting around an infant, and now I have a full-fledged toddler on my hands! A toddler that never stops moving. Have you ever heard of one of those? :)

Payton is very curious about how things work these days, and into everything. Just the simplest task, like taking a cap off a water bottle and trying to screw it back on, will entertain her 10 times longer than the million toys I have set out for her to play with. She wants to know what you're doing, too. If we're in the kitchen making dinner she wants to stand on a chair so she can watch, and in the morning if I'm putting on make-up before work she wants to sit on the counter and play with my brushes and stuff. She recently learned the word "mine" (which I was very careful NOT to teach her!) and now likes to scream it if she thinks you're touching something you shouldn't be. She also says "puppy" and "baby" a lot, she thinks anything on four legs is a puppy. We saw a squirrel in the park the other day and she started pointing at it and yelling "puppy!" We're starting to call her Miss Independent, because she wants to do everything on her own, she doesn't need your help thank you very much! If she needs your help she will ask YOU! Below are some pictures of an afternoon outside with the sprinkler. She was pretty wary of it at first, and then she couldn't get enough!

















Life has been a little stressful for us lately. The buyer on our house retracted their offer, so we're back to square one. We've lowered the asking price a little bit because we're really motivated to sell it, but can only afford to lose so much money. I'm trying not to lose a lot of sleep over it, but it's hard. We have to sell it to qualify to buy a home down here, so we're kind of stuck. I just keep telling myself to take a deep breath, and pray every night that this will work out for us soon.

My (newly employed!) sister and parents are on their way down to visit us for the weekend. Kyle is gone camping with the boys, but let's be honest, they only come to see Payton anyway :) I'm looking forward to relaxing and hanging with them. We're going to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate Chelsea's new job (she got hired as a full time contracted biology teacher at White River High School in Buckley, WA!), I am so proud of her.



I promise I won't go so long between blogs next time!