She's a Stinker

Payton sure loves being a big sister. She is a good big sister too, you can tell Laney loves her.

Don't watch her close enough though, she can be a real stinker.

Lane is a good sport and it's a good thing cause she's got few more years of putting up with her!

Kitchen Face-Lift

So I loaded the pictures backwards...you get to see the final product first.
Every home has it's projects to make it your own. When we moved in Chad put fans in all the bedrooms and the kitchen. He painted all of our bedrooms, which included taking down a wallpaper boarder in one the girls rooms. The kitchen however was too big to tackle before we moved in and Lane came. It had a hideous wall paper back splash, a ghetto track light that took 20mins to get bright and the appliances were grimy. So over Thanksgiving break we tackled the job and kitchen is soo much better.
My parents also let us borrow their steamer which was great helping take the wall paper down as well as steam cleaning the grout on the counter tops.

They are on a dimmer and I love the instant light.

Look at my handy man at work. I got up on the ladder and helped vacuum while he was cutting the holes- it was nice doing it that way because we had very little to clean up.

Till the next project...I will enjoy my kitchen.

Ready for Santa

Is there anything cuter than a baby in a miniature Santa hat?

Payton decorated her own little tinsel tree for her room. It has a little foot switch to turn on and she just loves having her 'own tree'. We bought special decorations, including a star, that were purple. Surprise, Surprise :)

Our family tree is up with twinkling lights and all our sentimental ornaments. It is a special year for us with a new baby and our first year in our house. We are enjoying the time together as a family, Chad is out of school till the second week in January and I only work Monday and Tuesday this week and next week. Happy Holidays!!

Roller Girls

I remember my mom spending long evenings before bed putting pink sponge rollers in mine and my younger sisters' hair. In the morning we would have a halo of Shirley Temple curls. Payton had been asking me almost every morning to curl her hair with the curling iron while doing mine, that was until she got little pink rollers for her birthday. Her hair is so fine the rollers make it more of a soft natural curl. I love not having to brush the lion mane every morning, plus she looks more girly the next day. I even managed to get one around Lane's little Charlie Brown tuft :)

We Call Them Miss & Mister

Laney is a thumb sucker...she likes it so much that she no longer has a preference for one over the other.

So we decided to name them, personification at it's best.

Here she is with Mister Thumb (right)

And here she is with Miss Thumb (left)

I silently died a little when she first started sucking her thumb. As a dental hygienist I know how bad it can be for your mouth and have seen the terrible effects on too many kids. To top it off Chad would text me pictures of her doing it while I was at work (twisting the knife in my back hahaha).

Well months later and a large dose of reality, she likes it and it makes her happy.

What more can I say?

(plus it is too cute!)

My Little Turkey Girl

It is hard to believe that 4 years ago this big girl was born.

Payton was born Nov. 23 2006, Thanksgiving day.

She gave us a lot to be thankful for then, after four years little did I know the joy she would bring to my life.

With her dark puppy eyes (like her papa) and little dimple she melts my heart every day.

She is full of fun and whit. I can't help laughing at her new found vocabulary and growing attitude.

Right now Payton is up to 'knock-knock jokes', preschool with sister Mitchell 2 days a week, Littlest Pet Shops, dressing herself (and doing very well I might add), playing memory and Yahtzee, and being a great big sister.

This year she had her birthday a few days before Thanksgiving, though we ended up celebrating the occasion 4 different days. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with both sides of the family and had a great relaxing weekend. Grammie Miller took us to see Tangled for Payton's birthday and she LOVED it!

Not having leftovers encouraged us to make our own turkey...Payton couldn't get enough- 'I want the other leg!'

Black Friday

Call us crazy but we were at Walmart at midnight for PJ's, a shop vac and DVD's.

Or even crazier for being at Target at 4am for a Wii Fit and fire pit. To top it off we had both our girls with us.

Payton thought it was great and she was a good sport. She had her first taste of McDonald's breakfast as a victory of our successful morning.

My Husband the Cook

While I was busy working 12 hour shifts the 3 days before Thanksgiving, Chad was out of school and at home cooking an awesome meal.

Inspired by our visit to the Mesa Grill in Vegas, Chad recreated the pork tenderloin with ancho chili sauce.

With the Bobby Flay cook book in hand he spent hours reducing sauces. It sure paid off, the meal was fantastic!!

There were even sweet potato tamales to go with it!

Double Dipped

We enjoyed a night out at the Melting Pot with our friends Jeremy and Annette.

It's hard to pass up anything dipped in cheese or chocolate!

Colors of the Season

We made a drive up to Estes Park to see the fall colors and the elk.

It was beautiful and we saw a group of elk, success!

Don't worry, we didn't leave Lane home...she was an angel and slept the entire trip!

It's Fall

At the pumpkin patch

PeaPod :)
Snow White (thanks for making it Grammie!)

Pumpkin carving, Payton's pick-

Buzz Lightyear!!

A Day With...

Grammie and Papa!

We enjoyed a busy day at the museum including some time at the new Amazon exhibit.
Both Grammie and Papa had the day off work and met up with us to have fun at the museum. These girls sure love their Grammie and Papa!!

Last Game

We went to the last Rockies Game of the Season. Bummer was they lost (Payton wasn't too happy about that). Other than the loss it was a great day at the ball park! We were all decked out in our home team apparel and each of us enjoyed a hot dog.

3 strikes you're out!!

My Cute Kids

Funny Face, Cute Outfit, Little Attitude, Sitting Pretty and Sister Love.

Jealous? We'll keep them!

Labor Day

Tradition, even with a 2 month old, we headed to Nebraska for the holiday weekend.

We met up with Scott, Cortney and Champ at the lake and enjoyed a HOT and beautiful weekend. It got into the 90's during the day and left the evenings and mornings chilly. Lane sported both her winter and summer hats!!

The girls did great, we were snug as four peas in a pod in our tent, and really enjoyed the sandy beach. Compared to last year the lake was up 30 vertical feet and it left a lot of beach and shallow water for Payton to enjoy. The sunsets were beautiful and our camp ground was to die for, we even had the hammock to relax in. Chad got some good potato-gun time in and we all enjoyed our evenings around the fire.

It was a great end to the summer!