Noah's Birthday

Saturday, April 3 was Noah's first birthday. We headed down to Virginia for his party in the afternoon. It was a small party. The other guests were Kyle's mom, Dave's parents, and three of Kate and Dave's friends. Before the birthday festivities began, Kate and Dave gave Peyton his Easter gifts.

He got some PlayDoh, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and a painting book.

Then we gave Noah his Easter gift. We got him an Elmo outfit since we heard he really likes Elmo right now.

Linda had a few gifts for Peyton too. She gave him a Five Little Ducks book and two cute outfits.

After Easter gifts, the food arrived. After everyone was full of pizza, it was time for cake. Kate made Noah's birthday cake. She did a really good job on the blocks.

We sang Happy Birthday to Noah, which Peyton loved as usual. Kate even let Peyton help Noah blow out his candle. Noah got to enjoy this giant cupcake with Cool Whip frosting. He was a little timid at first, but then he got into it. He decided he didn't even need to use his hands.

After cake, Noah opened his gifts. We got him the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. He was dying to get to that box since we brought it into the house. He helped tear the paper off of the box.

Kate prepared a slide show of pictures from Noah's first year that we watched after Noah opened his gifts. He's definitely grown a lot. We hung out for a little while longer and then we left the party around 6:00 so that Kyle could get home to watch the Michigan State game. It was a fun party. Happy 1st birthday Noah!

Egg Dying

We had a very busy weekend last weekend, so we decided to dye our Easter eggs on Friday night. I bought the egg dye a few weeks ago, but when we began the process of setting up the dyes, we discovered that the kit that I got only included three colors. Kyle went to the store to get a better kit, but couldn't find one even after visiting two stores. So, we ended up just doing the three color kit. Peyton had a good time putting the eggs in the dye and then deciding when each egg was finished dying. Here are some pictures.

Big Boy Bed

We went shopping for Peyton's new bedroom furniture two weekends ago. It arrived last Friday. When we got home from daycare, I took him upstairs to see his new room. He was pretty excited about his new big boy bed. Well, he was quite excited until... it was time to go to sleep that night. He really did not want to sleep in the bed. He wanted his crib so bad. I was trying to get him excited about sleeping in his new bed, but he ran out of the room and into the baby's room where we moved the crib. He jumped up into his crib and didn't want to get out. Kyle came upstairs as reinforcement. We got Peyton back into the big bed. He cried for a few minutes, practically begging us to let him sleep in his crib. We got him calmed down though and he went to sleep with no problems.

The next morning, when I went in to get Peyton when he woke up, I asked him how he liked sleeping in his big boy bed. He enthusiastically said, "I love my big boy bed!!" He's been doing really well sleeping in the bed. Here are some pictures of his updated room. Obviously, we let him pick out the bedding that he wanted and of course he chose Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Doesn't Peyton look so tiny in that huge bed?! He even sleeps with Mickey, as you can see. He loves that mouse.

Cruisin'

The weather has been so beautiful lately. Peyton has taken full advantage of the sunniness to take a few rides on his power lawn mower. Here are two pictures.

St. Patrick's Day

Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day. My mom hooked Peyton up with lots of green gear for him to wear. She got him some shamrock antennae (not pictured), a shamrock tie, a pin that says "I'm Irish! How luck can I be?", and some Goodluck Bear stickers. Aunt Bev supplied the leprechaun hat and he got the green lei at daycare. Here's Peyton in all of his green stuff.

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Peyton and I baked a green cake. He loves to bake with me! Peyton helped by dumping all of the ingredients into the bowl. Well, in the case of the water, most of it made it into the bowl but some of it missed and hit the counter instead.

Peyton even helped me use the mixer to mix the cake batter.

I think Peyton's favorite part though was getting to lick the beater after the cake was mixed. He had cake batter all over his face when he was done.

We baked the cake before dinner so that it could have time to cool so that we could frost it and eat it for an evening snack. Peyton asked about every five minutes or so through dinner and after dinner if it was time to eat the cake yet. Finally it was cool enough and we mixed up some green icing and frosted the cake. Here's our finished product. It tasted really good too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

First Trip to the Playground

The weather was absolutely beautiful here all week. On Tuesday, I took Peyton over to our community playground for the first time this year. He was very excited to get to slide and swing again. He didn't want to leave the playground, even when it was time to eat dinner. I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time there over the spring and summer. Here are a few pictures.

March Madness

Kyle and I watched the selection show last weekend to see where Maryland and Michigan State would end up in the brackets. When we saw that if they both won their first round games, they would play each other in the second round, we were pretty excited. The smack talk started immediately. We had this conversation at dinner:

Me: Peyton, say, "Go Terps!"
Peyton: Go Terps!
Kyle: No Peyton, say, "Go State!"
Peyton: Go Terps!

That's my boy!

Both Maryland and Michigan State won their games last night, so they will play each other on Sunday at 2:30. It should be a good game.

Videos

Here are two of the first videos that I took with my new Flip video camera. This first one is of Peyton spelling his name. He's so smart!



In the second video, Peyton entertains us with a song. Enjoy!

Adventures in Two Kids

Kyle and I babysat Noah over the weekend so that Kate and Dave could go out by themselves to celebrate Kate's birthday. Peyton was looking forward to Noah coming over all week! Kate and Dave dropped Noah off around 6:00 on Saturday. It was Noah's dinner time, so Kyle fed him his baby food. Peyton entertained Noah in between bites by playing peek-a-boo. Peyton can always make Noah laugh.

After Noah was finished with his mixed vegetables and chicken, it was time for him to eat his bottle. I poured the formula in with the water and Peyton helped me shake the formula up. He did anything he could to be a big helper.

When Kyle fed Noah his bottle, Peyton wanted to help with that too, of course. Peyton helped hold the bottle.

After dinner, Peyton and Noah played on the floor with Peyton's toys. I think they pulled out pretty much every toy that Peyton has. Here's a picture of the boys playing with the characters on Sesame Street.

Noah was pretty fascinated with Peyton's Elmo restaurant. He spent a lot of time just opening and closing the Oscar refrigerator door. I guess it was quite entertaining.

Noah goes to bed earlier than Peyton, so of course Peyton wanted to help with that process too. We took Noah upstairs and changed him into his pajamas. The pajamas that Kate packed for Noah were a little wet from a leaky cup of water, so Peyton let Noah borrow a pair of his. Even though Peyton's pajamas were 2T, they just about fit Noah. They were just a little long.

I read Noah his bedtime story, but Peyton wanted in on the action. This is how I picture my future when #2 comes.

Sunday morning the boys slept in until almost 9:30, so that was nice. Kyle got up with them, but Peyton needed his breathing treatment, so I got up too to entertain Noah. Stinks that I didn't get my sleep in day, but that's ok! Having the practice of dealing with two kids at the same time was worth it. Kyle got Noah up first, then went in to get Peyton. Peyton was so excited to see Noah and said, "Yay! Noah's here!" So cute.

I took Noah downstairs to give him breakfast while Kyle dealt with Peyton. Noah ate almost a full pancake, until he flung the remaining pancake onto the floor. After his pancake, I fed Noah his bottle while Peyton ate his own breakfast.

When both boys were finished eating, the spent the rest of the morning playing with more toys. I had to include that last picture of Peyton so that you could see the mess they made!

Peyton was such a big helper with Noah all weekend. I just hope that he is that excited about his little brother. We had a good time watching Noah and will gladly do it again any time (hint, hint... hehe).

Mommy and Peyton Date Night

Kyle had a basketball game on Friday evening, so Peyton and I had a date night. It was raining so hard when I picked Peyton up from daycare though, so I decided that we would just go out to dinner. I took Peyton to the very high class Chick-Fil-A. We had a yummy dinner of chicken nuggets and waffle fries. After we ate, Peyton played in the play area for a little while. He had fun climbing up into the tubes and sliding down the slide. Here are a few pictures.

Dad's Birthday

We went out to dinner on February 28 to celebrate Dad's (56th!) birthday. We met up with Dad, Mom, Jeremy, and Jill at Pizza John's. We ordered some pizzas and waited around for a few minutes to find a table that was large enough for the seven of us. Finally, we were able to sit down. Here's a cute picture of Peyton while we were waiting for our food.

Peyton loves pizza, and especially pepperoni, so he tore up his food. The pizza was incredibly greasy and it was hurting my stomach a little, so I think Peyton might have actually eaten more pizza than me. He also mooched extra pepperoni off anyone who would give them to him.

After dinner, it was time to sing Happy Birthday. As you can see from the picture below, Peyton was once again super excited to sing to Pop-Pop. You would think it was Peyton's birthday by the look of pure joy on his face. He did a great job singing as usual.

Jeremy and Jill baked up a special recipe churro cake for my dad. The cake was cinnamon flavored and there were churros in between the two layers of cake and on top of the cake. The cake portion tasted good, but the churros were kind of soggy by the time we ate the cake. It was a good try though guys!

Next, dad opened his cards and presents.

Peyton got him a new belt and some socks.

And Kyle and I got him some khakis. (Doesn't he look so excited in both pictures?!)

Finally, dad opened two movies - The Hangover and Inglorious Bastards - from Jeremy and Jill. Then we all headed home in the pouring rain.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Monster Jam

Kyle took Peyton to see Monster Jam on February 27. We had an extra ticket and I had no desire to go to the show, so Kyle decided to take Dougie with them. They met up with Kyle's BFF Karl and his two sons at the show.

I'm not really sure of all that went on during the show since I wasn't there. I asked Kyle to write this post, but he refused, so here are some pictures and tidbits of what I was told. I heard that not only were there monster trucks, but there were also motorcycles and bicycles. Peyton said that he liked the show but that the trucks were LOUD! His favorite monster truck was the Spiderman one (in the second picture below). That's about all of the details that I have, so I'll just leave you with some pictures from the day.

More Valentine's Day Gifts

Aunt Bev dropped off some Valentine's Day gifts for Peyton at my parents' house a few weeks ago. We just got them from my mom last weekend though. Here are some pictures of him opening his gifts. Inside of his card, there was some money!

And next, Peyton got this giant Hershey Kiss. He didn't know what it was until I told him it was candy. Then he got super excited and said, "Ooooooh candy!"

And finally, there was a giant chocolate chip cookie. He actually ate this today and loved it. (And had a chocolate face to boot!)

Thanks for the gifts Aunt Bev!

So behind...

I have a few things to post about, but have been so busy this week with the funeral services. I'm hoping to catch up this weekend, so be patient with me! Stay tuned!