We had another beautiful sunny weekend! Hard to believe just a month ago it was snowing around here. It was a very productive weekend... On Saturday after gymnastics we took Payton to the park to feed the ducks. She'd been talking about it ALL week, ever since Grandma Sue took her last weekend when we were in Portland. She doesn't like to get too close to them, but will wave and say "hi duck!" as she tosses them some bread. After a nice long nap, we went out to dinner before I headed up to Portland. It was crowded, everyone was out and about enjoying the sunny weather!

Saturday night I ran up to Portland for a few hours to hang with some college friends. It was really nice to catch up and see what everyone is up to. I was way overdue for seeing those girls!

Sunday morning we went grocery shopping, and then worked again in the yard. We have so many projects in mind for our yard, it will keep us busy for years! Some of our short term goals are to refinish the deck, put in a flower bed in front of our living room window, and we would love to put a fire pit in our backyard. Hang out by the fire, roast some smores... sounds like a great summer night :) The list is long, so I'm sure we will only get to a few this summer. We also need to replace all the windows in our house (which will be expensive I hear), and we're really considering buying an air conditioner... They're so worth it! Just reminds me how expensive home ownership is! Especially when your home isn't brand new (like our last one was). Hard to believe we've only lived here for six months though. It feels like we've been here a lot longer than that!

Sunday evening we finally put Payton's bike trailer to good use and hooked it onto the back of Kyle's bike. I summoned some courage and got on a bike myself; I couldn't remember the last time I rode a bike! Middle school maybe?? Anyway, I managed not to embarrass myself and stayed on the whole time (yay me!) and I actually ended up really enjoying myself. It was so fun! We rode to Payton's future elementary school (Liberty) and let her play on their playground for a while. Her favorite by far is the slide. When we were ready to go, we lured her back into the trailer with a snack and some water, and away we went. We rode to the hospital, then turned around and rode home. It was probably only a 3 mile ride, but I'm really excited to go again! We're planning a picnic to our favorite park soon!

Unfortunately I'm on call this next weekend, so we'll be laying pretty low. Probably doing more... you guessed it! Yard work. Luckily we have an outdoors girl, I think she would be outside every minute if we let her! She doesn't even want to come in for meals (and let me tell you, Payton doesn't skip meals). We've been eating dinner outside on the deck the last few nights, and she's loved that. It's saved us a few meltdowns from forcing her to come inside.

Payton quote of the week:

"Watch Dora mommy?"

"No honey, we're not going to watch Dora right now."

"Ok. In a little bit."

Have a great week everyone!

I had an amazing weekend! On Saturday Kyle and I went to a wedding of one of my old co-workers in Portland. The big plus to this is that I got to see LOTS of old co-workers! I miss them all so much, and hadn't seen most of them in almost a year. I had a blast catching up with everyone, not to mention one of my friends had a baby a few weeks ago that I got to snuggle with!

Baby Hank!

We were gone almost the whole day, Payton spent the day with Grandma Sue. They went to the park, fed the ducks, she took her to gymnastics, they had quite the day! It's been a long time since I left Payton for so long to do something for myself, so although I did feel that twinge of mom guilt, I felt so refreshed and relaxed when I came home that night. It was exactly what I needed!

Sunday was yard day... I actually texted my mother and apologized to her for all the years that I refused to help her in the yard. Kyle and I have never had a yard to take care of, they are a LOT of work! We were both hurting the next day. The weeding, pruning, weed whacking, mowing, all just to make your yard look decent. The nice thing is that Payton is old enough to where she thinks it's fun to "help" us! We got her her own little gardening gloves and shovel (Dora the Explorer themed of course!), and she followed me around with the weed bucket. Every time I dropped a weed in there she said "good job!" It was nice to just be outside, and once you saw the product of all your hard work it was pretty rewarding.

My personal gardener

On a side note, I decided to try my hand at nature photography. I figured if I can take pictures of a walking, talking human, how hard can it be to take a picture of an immobile flower? Turns out, it was WAY harder than I thought it would be! My props to Grandpa Casebolt (nature photographer), it is really difficult to make a flower (or anything) look interesting. Sure, I can just take a picture, but to make it pleasing to the eye actually takes a lot of creativity. I had fun trying though!

My subject. Please look below for my attempts at a decent picture...











My next subject



Ewwww he's hairy...



Not a bad start I guess, but definitely a challenge. Hopefully this summer I will have more opportunities to work on it!

Ah, my sweet Payton girl. Remember how I told you I thought she would be into dress-up? Well I got her a little tinker bell fairy outfit for Easter, and when she put it on she ran around the house screaming "I'm flying! I'm flying!" :)



Fairy princess



"I'm flying!"

This next weekend I'm taking a little bit more "me" time and heading back up to Portland on Saturday night for a party that my friend is throwing with some of my old college friends. I haven't seen them in a long time either, so I'm really looking forward to catching up and seeing what everyone is up to. Other than that, if the weather's nice, we'll probably be spending more time in the yard, at the park... that girl loves to be outside!

No matter how many times I look out my window at my beautiful yard...

...this will always be my favorite view :)

Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

We had a great weekend, soaking up the much appreciated sunshine. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather!

Last week Payton and I went to the bounce house in Corvallis on an unexpected day off. It was fun, I really miss having a day off during the week!









On Saturday night we had dinner at Sue's house, and we decided to go through a "trial run" of the Easter egg hunt. The only problem with our plan was she realized that there were little prizes in there. So when we set her loose for the actual event on Sunday afternoon, she didn't want to keep looking for eggs, she wanted to open them one by one and have a snack! :)

This was pretty funny... We were all taking pictures of Payton blowing bubbles with her Uncle Tanner, when Lindsey snapped this picture of us and dubbed us "Payton's paparazzi". So true!

A view from the other side...

We had a huge breakfast at Kyle's Aunt Pam's house Easter morning, it was delicious and the sun was shining. Perfect start to the day!

I'm ready to hunt Easter eggs!

I got one!

Waving to my adoring public. We were quite a sight, about 17 adults watching one toddler hunt Easter eggs :) It was fun to watch her though!



Check out all my eggs!

Enjoying my treats!

It's hard to believe it's already mid April. Payton, of course, is quite the talker lately! And she loves to sing. I'm usually playing music on my iPod or Pandora in the morning while we eat breakfast or while we're making dinner, and she has surprised me the last couple days by singing along to some of the songs that she hears frequently! She loves shoes and coats, I think she's really going to be into dress up. She's repeating everything we say, so we have to be pretty careful. Tonight she put both her hands on Kyle's face, looked him in the eye, and said "Daddy, listen me. You sit time-out. OK?" She must have picked that one up at daycare... I actually rarely have to put her in timeout, usually just the threat of it is enough. I asked her daycare providers if they ever have to put her in timeout, and they said no. I think watching the other kids in timeout motivates her to stay in line! Her hair is getting longer, and it's so curly. She really resembles Kyle now with her blond, curly hair and blue eyes. She loves books, and is really into repetition (she likes listening to the same story over and over and over...) She loves being outside, she wants to go out there even when it's raining. She has been having fun kicking around a soccer ball, and I found a soccer league for little kids, so I decided to sign her up for a session that starts this summer. I can't wait to watch a bunch of toddlers running around chasing a ball! :)

This Saturday Kyle and I are headed up to Portland to go to an old co-workers wedding. We decided to make it an adult only trip, and I'm really excited to catch up with all my old peeps! Other than that, hopefully the weather is good and we can continue attacking our yard and making it presentable. We've never had a yard to take care of before, so we're learning a lot! And realizing how much work it is...

Also, I've had a lot of questions about when we're next headed home to Washington. I know we're WAY overdue, and I apologize for that! I've decided that in order to maximize our time and have the best chance of seeing everyone we want to see, we're going to take advantage of the long Memorial day weekend, and so we'll be headed up the last weekend in May. Hope we get to see you soon! :)

"NO Mac 'N Cheese!"

Chuck E Cheese. The place of Payton's nightmares.

Don't I look like I'm having fun?!

Payton (not to mention Kyle and I) were very overwhelmed once we got inside Chuck E Cheese. That place is a madhouse! Payton just wanted to sit in this little car that moved back and forth. I called it her perch, she just sat there and checked everyone out.

My perch



The real fun began once Chuck E Cheese came out for his show... she freaked out! She freaked out with Santa Claus too, so I'm starting to think she's just not into costumed characters. She called him Mac 'N Cheese though, which was pretty funny. During his show she just kept saying "No Mac N' Cheese! No Mac 'N Cheese!" She was very excited to see Melina though. I told her that morning that we were going to Melina's birthday, and she kept saying "Meena, happy birthday you". Very cute :)

Birthday girl!

Hard to believe Easter is almost upon us already. Hope you all have a great week!