Peyton and the Camera

I loaded some pictures tonight and noticed the last few days were all about Peyton. This is likely due to the fact that she is sitting still FAR more often than her sister, and therefore much easier to capture. Anyway, there's not a lot to say about them...They speak for themselves....

Daddy's hat..

Grammy Pearl's high chair..

Fun with Libby..

Sitting at the table like a big girl..

Aw shucks...

Taking in the Duck game...

I couldn't resist a few comments. She's getting so big so fast! Tonight I got new car seats ready for both girls. I think I'm done lugging Peyton around in the infant seat. She's just getting too heavy. That means though, that I'll risk waking her when the car stops. I guess you've got to give a little, take a little....I feel a song coming on.....

Christmas 2008

This Christmas was so much fun with the girls! Since Libby just had her birthday she totally understands the tearing open of wrapped packages and was ready to go if ever one was set before her. Peyton, on the other hand, was content to chew on the wrapping paper until someone noticed and then took it away. All in all we had a great time, and were totally exhausted when it was all said and done. How fortunate we are!

We started a few days before Christmas morning. We had our own celebration at home with the girls who opened some new toys. Shane decorated Peyton for a photo op.

Look at those rosy cheeks!

When we got to my mom's house this is the scene we were met with...her favorite summertime fountain totally covered.

We spent Christmas Eve at Marge's (Julane's mother in law) house. My dad and Margie came and Marge made a great (as always) ham dinner. It turns out Santa comes early to Marge's house, so after dinner we headed to the living room to open some gifts.


The littlest Christmas elf.

A Christmas Eve snuggle with Grandma Margie.

Christmas morning we headed to Jim and Julane's house for more celebrating. Mom and Julane put the turkey in around 9:00 and then the paper began to fly. Here is Jim and Jamison playing Mario Kart on the Wii. The boys also unwrapped a new Rock Band 2. Check out those pictures below.

Libby contemplates this gift...big girl underwear.

A family photo. These are much harder to get than you'd imagine!

Ho ho ho!


Libby Models a new outfit from the Dovers.

Peyton was mesmerized by the snow in the globe. I think she was most interested in trying to eat it.

My mom and Jayden rock out playing Rock Band 2. Jayden's on guitar and my mom's on drums. Jim (not pictured) rocked the vocals.

On Friday morning we went to My dad and Margie's house for brunch, gifts, sledding and a round of Apples to Apples. Here Libby hauls her stocking and Peyton's to the living room to open them up.

Libby enjoys a candy bracelet from Santa.

After gifts, we headed out to the road to sled on the hill by their house. Unfortunately, the road got sanded the night before which left us a pretty narrow track down the right side. It was hard to get up much speed without a lot of weight, so we had to get creative. Do you know how hard it is to fit two adults onto one disc sled? Not easy, but quite comical!

Here Shane hauls Peyton to the sledding hill in her car seat. No, we didn't send her down the hill....she slept through the whole thing.

Libby works on her snowball technique.

Dad brought his shovel to try to clear our path of cinders. Yes, his hat has horns.

Aunt Julane and Libby tackle the hill.

The boys resorted to playing in the snow along the side of the road as they had a hard time getting the sleds to go. Here he keeps an eye on Jamison....

and Jamison contemplates taking out his brother.

Snowy fun with daddy.

Libby and I have some laughs of our own.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Libby's Book

These pictures show a couple of things. First, the book that Libby is holding in every picture is actually an ornament/book that she couldn't stand to leave on the tree. It's a book that Grammy Jane gave her last year. Libby's picture is inserted in the back so that she is the main character on each page. She loves it. She can't put it down. She carries it like a purse....everywhere.

Check it out! Though it's gone now we loved having snow on the valley floor. The rain came back today, but it was fun while it lasted.

Peyton is .5!

Peyton was six months old yesterday. In honor of the big day she devoured a whole jar of sweet potatoes and we are officially done with those sweet smelling, easy to tolerate poopy diapers. Now, we're into the big stuff. Sweet potatoes in....and not so sweet potatoes out. We love her just the same. She's sitting up by herself...right before tipping over. Libby provides lots of comic relief by trying to help her back up.




I am LOVING taking pictures with a new camera and thought I'd give some still life some consideration. Perhaps I should've pick a different fruit than a kiwi.....

We decorated our tree tonight and Libby had the most fun. She loved getting into the boxes and unwrapping the ornaments as if each one were its own special present. Then, she'd hand them to Shane to hang on the tree. I told Shane after we'd finished that I don't care if we pop popcorn and throw it on the tree. If the girls always have as much fun decorating the tree as Libby did tonight, then let our traditions evolve as they may. The popcorn idea came after an unsuccessful attempt at untangling the lights. I threw (not in anger) the whole tangled mess on the tree and it stuck near the top. It actually didn't look horrible, and I considered leaving it. I'm just too type A for that, and so I did take them down and string them properly.

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December is Flying

December is flying by. It's almost half over. Peyton will be six months old next week and Christmas will be here before we know it. The girls and I went to the mall today and Libby was totally afraid of Santa, but was willing to get close enough to take the coloring book he offered her. Christmas will be fun this year, but Santa will be a small part of it.

Peyton has found her hands.

While afraid of Santa, Libby is a huge fan of Elmo.....

...and a good buddy to Grunny.

Libby blows out the candle on her "cake".

I got shampoo!

Peyton is sitting up with a little help from her Boppy pillow. It doesn't totally do the job though, and eventually she tips over.

Okay, I have to explain this one. Every year I go to a Christmas cookie exchange party with my friend Becky. My cookies are always ugly. They usually taste good, but don't even make the table, let alone win a prize. Until....this year! You are looking at the cookies responsible for my title of MOST CREATIVE COOKIE. Yep, this is seriously blog-worthy. Becky's were voted prettiest cookie, and Corey's were voted ugliest, a title I think she was proud of. By the way, the idea came from one of my third graders who made these for her "how to" speech. I'd like to thank the little people who made it all possible. Pressure's on for next year!

I feel shy.

Our sleepy girl eats her breakfast monkey style.

Trying on the Christmas duds.

Libby shows her dimples.

These pictures were an attempt to get a cute shot for our Christmas card. We were in our driveway, and I didn't want Peyton falling on the pavement, so I asked Libby to hold onto her. This was the result. Not exactly card worthy.


On second thought, it would make a unique card.

Peyton sits at the counter like a big girl.