Payton turns 3

This year Payton's birthday was a little different. The past two years we have had a big birthday party for her. This year, one of Tyler's really good friends is getting married in Las Vegas on Payton's birthday. Also, one of my high school friends reception is on the same night.  So we will be in Vegas for P's birthday. She didn't seem to mind though. 

So instead we had 3 different celebrations for her. The first one we did with my parents. We went up to the mountains the weekend before and just had a relaxed afternoon. Lots of rock throwing, stick gathering and creek playing went down. And eating. 

The next celebration was with her best friend Taisley. She doesn't get to see her very often because we don't live in Layton anymore so we met in Salt Lake at the Discovery Museum and they played hard. They sure love each other.

On her actual birthday we were in Las Vegas spending all day doing wedding stuff, which was really boring for her.  So we just decided to pretend her birthday was the next day. She never knew the difference. 

Birthday breakfast donut 

We went to a water park in the morning and saw Inside Out after. I hope it's a phase but she is deathly afraid of water. She will go in the lazy river and wave pool as long as we are in a tube and she is on our lap. At least she loved seeing the movie. 

We let her pick dinner that night and of course she chose In'n'out. Poor girl only eats there and Costa Vida because those are the only fast food places I can eat.  Life with a Celiac mom.  Luckily she loves them both. 

Presents and cake from Nona and Papa. 

Top 5 - June 2015

Payton Millie

3 years

1 - Payton turned 3 this month. When did that happen? She is the sweetest and most sympathetic girl. Anytime anybody gets hurt or anyone is sad she is gravely concerned. She always wants to play doctor and put neosporn and band aids on anything including all of her animals and dolls. 

2 - She is really into singing lately. Not one song in particular. Actually she basically just talks in song. She narrates everything she is doing in song. It is pretty hilarious. The other day she sang "I am singing and making music and singing in the car with my blankey in my lap!"  It cracked me up. She reminds me of Will Ferrel from elf when he sings a Christmas gram in his dad's office. 

3 - My all time favorite thing is that out of nowhere she will say "Mom, I love you this much" and hold her arms out as wide as she can. Then she will say "Show me how you love me" and I will do the same to which she responds "that's a looot..."  It melts my heart. 

4 - I don't know if you have heard of Magic clip dolls, but they are Payton's favorite toys. She takes at least two of them with her everywhere she goes. She is really creative these days and is always laying pretend with them and making them talk. Any long car ride I make sure she has them because they keep her very entertained. One time we forgot them and as I was driving I heard her in the back seat having a pretend conversation with someone. I look back there and she has her two hands in a fist and is making her hands talk to each other like they are her dolls. Who needs toys when you have your hands? 

5 - A few weeks after Cooper was born we asked her how much she loved him. She held out her thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart and said this much. Then said, "but I love you and daddy this much" while stretching her arms out wide. That worried me a little but I thought it was probably normal. The other week out of nowhere she looked at me and said "Mommy I love Cooper this much now" and stretched her arms out wide. So cute. 

Cooper Seth 

2 months

1 - He loves smiling these days. All I have to do to get him to smile is get close to his face and use my annoying baby voice and that kid is one happy baby. 

2 - He is cooing and talking like crazy. It is my favorite thing in the world. I try to capture it on camera but every time I try to record him he stops talking and looking at me and stares at my phone in awe. 

3 - The first month he literally cried 75% of the day. It was so hard. But at month two it was like a switch was flipped. He is so chill and calm lately and I love it. We went to seven peaks this weekend and he fell asleep in my lap in the wave pool for a good hour.

4 - I feel like I am going to jinx myself but he has slept through the night a solid 6-8 hours straight the past week. I hope it continues. 

5 - He has discovered his hands. He doesn't quite have the dexterity to suck just his thumb or just one finger but he does find a way to shove his whole fist in his mouth. It's pretty amusing. 

Living for the Summer

Boy are we glad it's summer. I love Utah in the summertime. 

We took a quick weekend trip down to Saint George with some friends a month ago. It was a little tricky because Cooper was only 4 weeks old but it was fun. And honestly car trips are the best when your baby sleeps the whole ride down. 

It rained almost the whole weekend down there but we got lucky and went on the Red Cliff hike in Leeds on the one sunny day. 

For my grandma's birthday we all went up to my aunt's cabin and had a BBQ. I love getting up to the mountains. It is so refreshing. We did some 4-wheeling and lots of eating. 

                                

                                

A few weekends ago we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked Donut Falls. It was super crowded but so fun. Payton did really well but ended up on Tyler's shoulders most of the time. 

                                  

                                

                               

                                

Last weekend South Jordan had a carnival. We went the night that it poured but luckily we got in a good two hours of fun before it started. Payton's favorite: Face Painting. 

                               

Our first Seven Peaks outing was a success. Tyler works in Provo so we will be meeting him down there at the Provo one a lot this summer. It is so much better then the Salt Lake Seven Peaks. 

We have loved soaking up the sun with good friends. 

Sleepwalking Injury

So last night Tyler woke me up by leaping across the bed screaming at the top of his lungs trying to get out of our room. This is a picture of the nightstand next to my side of the bed. So in order to get to the door he had to leap across me and past the nightstand. Unfortunately he didn't get past the night stand. His leg hit the front edge and snapped it right off. I don't know how the lamp broke...

After all that he runs out of the bedroom. I was really worried so I ran out and turned the light on. He was laying on the floor by the couch panting. He slowly woke up and was holding his leg in pain. Poor guy. Usually his sleepwalking episodes are pretty funny but this was the first time we were actually worried. He hurt his leg pretty bad. 

After he woke up he told me that in his dream our room was a cave that was slowly sinking into the ground and the door was the only escape before he was trapped forever underground. So all of that was an attempt to get out of the cave. At least he got out...

Top 5 - May 2015

Payton Millie 

2 years 11 months

1 - She is EVERYTHING girl.  I literally have to trick her somedays into wearing pants and only because she doesn't own enough dresses.  From here on out I am only buying her dresses.  She is always talking about princesses, playing with princesses, singing princess songs.  She is obsessed with putting makeup on and always joins me in the bathroom while I am getting ready.  I occasionally put eyeshadow on her (which she calls sparkly stuff) and lip gloss (which she calls lip stuff).  One evening it got really quiet and Ty and I noticed that Payton disappeared.  We found her in the bathroom putting on my lipstick ALL over her face.  

2 - This girl LOVES to talk.  From sun up to sun down she will chat my ears off - or anyone that will let her for that matter.  She is very inquisitive and creative and is always telling us stories about anything and everything.  We recently took a road trip to St. George and the last 15 minutes we decided to tell her about the "quiet game".  She didn't buy it.  This is a video (it's dark so it's really only audio) of her about 2 minutes after we suggested that game.  

3 - Anytime we get together with friends and their kids Payton always spends her time talking to the adults (particularly all the men).  Even though in the next room all the kids are playing and having fun, she insists on telling all the guys about everything that happened to her that day and anything else she can think of telling them.  It is pretty dang adorable.  Luckily, the guys are smitten by her cute little voice and love it.  

4 - The first few weeks of bringing Cooper home from the hospital she was smitten by him.  She was so worried when he cried and helped put his binkie back in his mouth when it fell out.  Lately though she has started to realize that the world doesn't revolve around only her anymore and she is not happy about it.  When I am feeding Cooper and she wants me to do something with her but I can't, she just looks at me and grunts and walks away.  She is constantly doing that little grunt, immediately followed by the phrase "Mom I'm frustrated!"  It is pretty dang cute and it is hard not to laugh when she does it.

5 - She is a very sweet girl, but also very stubborn.  If I suggest something for her to do or something I want her to do to help out there is a specific way I have learned to go about it.  If I ask her to eat her carrots or clean up her toys or help throw away a poopy diaper she usually first says no.  Then I say "Okay you don't have to." to which about 90% of the time she replies "Okay I want to."  It is the weirdest thing but I'm not complaining.  I LOVE it.  

Cooper Seth

1 month

1 - He is freakishly tall.  He is 54% in weight, but 98% in height.  His 3 month old pajamas aren't tight on him, but they fall off his shoulders so I had to buy him 6 month old pajamas when he was 6 weeks old.  

2 - He is our little turtle.  Whenever he gets burped he stretches out his little neck and rounds his lips like the picture above and sticks out his tongue.  It is the cutest thing ever.

3 - He loves sleeping in his carseat.  The second we get in the car he is out.  Even if he just woke up from a nap 5 minutes earlier.

4 - He hates tummy time.  I guess every baby does.  He hates it so much that he already figured out how to roll over from his tummy to his back.

5 - He is very curious and interested in Payton.  Anytime he hears her voice he looks around until he sees her.  It is really cute.  He is always staring at her.

Then there were 4...

Everybody always asks me what is the hardest thing about going from being a mom of one to a mom of two.  I never know what to answer.  Honestly...everything.  But after a month now I have finally adjusted a little bit better and can manage to handle the two out in public.  Although the hardest thing so far that I never really thought about has been grocery shopping.

Although I did see this awesome little product tagged on someone's Pinterest the other day and I thought it was a brilliant idea.  I will definitely be getting one.

Anyways...we went to Fotofly to get some newborn shots of Cooper and some family shots as well.  These are some of my favorite.