Balloons

This past week, we had a little party to celebrate Payton's birthday. That morning, he came downstairs, and immediately he knew it was the day of his birthday party...how you ask? because I was filling up about 30 balloons with helium. For the past month, that has been his only request. "mommy, on my birthday, can I have balloons?" over and over again....



my attempt at making an elmo cake.

I did an "elmo" themed party and possibly may have gone a little overboard on the food by making too much... :) But, the important thing is that Payton had fun! He and 7 of his bestest friends played, ate, and decorated cupcakes.

Some Firsts

First time, helping decorate the tree. He really enjoyed hanging the ornaments up.
Posing with the santa hat and christmas decor.

First Christmas song that he has ever sung... not sure which song this is or where he learned it from, but it sure sounds like it should be a Christmas song... :)



First christmas program. His class is the front row. Can you tell none of them really knew the song? At least it seems he is enjoying himself... :)

Itsy Bitsy Spider....by our little munchkin

Trick or Treating in the mall?

Besides going on our street trick or treating, we also learned that you can trick or treat in the mall here! there were tons of kids doing this at the local mall we went too. Payton refused to wear his costume, but I did manage to at least get him to wear an orange shirt. He also refused to say "trick or treat". He would just hold out his bucket to everyone passing out candy... After we got home, he decided to tell his pet about the fun he had....

Eeyore ....again

I did buy a tigger costume for Payton this year. But when he saw the Eeyore costume in his closet (from last year), he really wanted to wear it again. So...even though it was a little short, and it wasn't as easy to zip up as last year, I think it still fits sort of?!

Here he is with his trusty elmo bucket. Which was also an easter egg bucket, so at first he told me he was so happy to go crack "eggs" again (boy, he has a good memory). He didn't seem too upset though when I explained we were going around to other houses to ask for candy (not eggs).

So happy at the thought of getting candy.


Copying me, trying to take a vertical shot of him because I realized I wasn't getting his whole body in the picture.


Then, we went next door to go trick or treating with our neighbors....well, the cute kids (all older than P), were so excited that they came out yelling and a few had some scary costumes on, so P got super scared. I carried him to 2 houses with the kids and then finally on the 3rd house, he walked by himself....

notice, he does not look too happy, even though he is getting cookies, chips, and candy (this house gives good stuff!)

leaving house with great stuff, still kinda sad... :( he was just soo scared of the couple of the costumes, that we went home after that. Waited until the scary costumes were gone and then continued for a few more houses. I think we went to a few more houses than last year, but not by much. Poor little guy, was so scared!

Rainbow Trout

If you know my husband, you know that he loves to fish. And even though we no longer live near galveston, it seems he has found even more places to fish here than where we used to live. His new favorite place is a pond that is annually stocked with rainbow trout. Here is his recent catch.

doesn't he look happy?

He cleaned and filleted (sp?) the fish and I cooked it using Alton Brown's recipe. The recipe only requires a few ingredients and it is sooo tasty! We've made it a few times and it is probably one of the best fish recipes I have ever tasted! Of course, I forgot to take pictures before we gobbled it up, but if you need a fish recipe, this one is very tasty!!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/good-eats/pan-fried-fish-recipe/index.html

Pumpkin Farm

We went to another farm last week. There were pumpkins and the normal animals, but there were also little mechanical rides. Payton had a blast!

He really likes riding horses...
and feeding animals...

a baby calf! so precious monster trucks! his favorite ride, look at the concentration on his face!
and the little munchkins posing for the mommies... they were so well behaved in letting us take this photo! (even though I think mine looks angry... :), it was the end of the day, I don't blame the little guy). We've been having alot of fun at all the different types of "farms" around where we live. :)

Longhorn in Training

Mike and I weren't the only ones excited that UT beat OU today....

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

After we put Payton down to bed at night, sometimes he sings songs to himself. One of his favorites is Jesus loves me. I recorded him one night, so we could remember how cute he sounds. The video is black because, the lights are off in his room, so don't worry it's not your computer!! Notice how he tries to reach the "high" notes. Also, if it sounds like he has something in his mouth while he is singing, he does! it's a pacifier, and really, I'm going to bite the bullet and break him of this habit before he turns 3!! (i hope)

Crazy weather

Here we are at the zoo in mid september. Pretty warm day, eating an icee (one of his favorite treats)!


2 weeks later at the zoo again....fleece, hat, gloves...brrrrr! cold!!
And last night, our first freeze! Not sure when I will get used to this crazy weather...

Apple Picking

We went apple picking for the first time at an orchard in wisconsin last weekend. Bffs in the wagon getting ready to go apple picking.
working hard picking apples
He was very proud to pick his own apples

Enjoying the fruits of their (or mostly their daddies') labor.

Picking apples was actually really fun. The orchard was huge with dozens of different kinds, including asian pear trees! We must have each tasted at least 10 different kinds of apples. It is more expensive than just buying them at a grocery store, but it's so much more fun to pick your own, right? I think the kiddos and mommies would at least agree (maybe not the husbands).

Pre Pre School

Payton recently started "pre" pre-school, once a week. Isn't he so cute with his little backpack?



I was really anxious about it (and still am a little), since we've never left him in a "school" type setting. He was sad at first, but apparently ended up having a great time. After his first day, he kept talking about how much he liked it and what he learned there for the rest of the week! It's very bittersweet for me, he's growing up so fast! Soon, he'll be off to kindergarten (well...in 3 years)....

Fishing

Previously, I had posted about Payton loving to catch "fish" with his new fishing game we had gotten at a garage sale. Well, today, we took him real fishing, in the small lake across the street from us.

We didn't use live bait, instead, we had little plastic fish as bait (i'm no fisherman but i think they are called lures?). So, at first, payton was super excited to reel up his pole numerous times and see the "small fish" that he caught. Then, Mike actually caught real fish and Payton called these the "big fish" (see video below).

What's growing in our garden?

What's growing in our garden today? tomatoes. Favorite use would be on bruschetta or in a caprese salad.

eggplant, favorite use, stir-fried with mr. yoshida sauce.
cucumbers
broccoli

and...this odd looking plant? the tomatillo...we actually haven't harvested any of these yet, but we thought they look very interesting...

Big Rip!

Remember seeing all those funny home videos shows with seemingly a good portion of the material having to do with guys getting pegged in the nuts by some errant flying object (why do we find that so funny)? Well after this incident, I realized that sooner or later (hopefully much later), I'm going to be that guy in the video. Despite not practicing much, Payton's hitting skills and power are noticeably improved.

Is this odd?

We went to the zoo a week and a half ago, Payton just loved it. Notice the cutoff shirt, it was a nice day, a little hot for illinois standards i think, about 80 degrees.



Yesterday, this is what we were wearing (in the morning). Last night i think it was about 43 degrees. Just crazy in my opinion. Is our summer weather already over?


Also, i've been mulling over potty training payton for months now. But, things keep coming up (or rather I keep making excuses to put it off) so i didn't do it... except, at his 2.5 year checkup, the doctor said, I should at least be sticking him on the toilet once a day (even if he's scared, which he was at first). well fast forward 2 months. and 4 days ago, payton just decided to basically potty train himself. 48 hours of no wet diapers (even overnight), i was absolutely shocked! I was beside myself and couldn't believe that possibly, I wouldn't have to ever clean up accidents and make him run around naked with a potty next to him for 3 days and repeatedly ask him if he needed to pee?

well, since then, he has reverted back somewhat, and decided that sometimes he doesn't want to sit on the potty, which I'm completely ok with, since I hadn't really "trained" him. I'm just hopeful that I still won't have to "train" him using the no diaper method. And really I'm pleasantly surprised because I've never heard of a toddler "training" themselves?

Meeting old and new friends

Payton had a busy week in texas catching up with old and new friends.
meeting baby E for the first time (only 1 month old!)
swimming with baby F (giving her a kiss to help her feel better about swimming, she was a little scared)
Playing with M. Previously only skyped. First time meeting in person. They played really well together.
Hanging with C and N, thanks B and L for hosting us!

Meeting H for the first time, such a cutie.

Group photo in age order. So cute! no one looks happy, but there are all sitting on the couch so nicely for their mommies to take pictures... :)

Family Fun

We had alot of fun visiting family in Texas.


the three muskateers (cousins)


hanging with hodebegiwith harmoni, and eating frozen bananas


auntie even made a special trip down!playing with gong gong and po po

Gardening

Just got back from a wonderful (and HOT) trip to texas. So much fun to see family and friends. Payton was quite exhausted though...
then rolled off the couch slowly...
still slept for another hour like this after getting home from the airport.

Even though we had no produce in our fridge for dinner the night we got back, our garden has been producing, so we were able to eat from some of that.
It's been alot of fun trying out different vegetable and fruit plants and watching them grow. In July, our raspberry bushes gave us something to pick everyday for about 3 weeks. Payton loved it!

slip and slide

Last weekend, we got to hang out with uncle kenny who was visiting. All week Payton would randomly say " Did you have fun with Uncle kenny?" Basically, when he asks a question like that, he wants someone else to ask him the same question back, and then he smiles and says "yes"....so I'm pretty sure he is looking forward to seeing him again in a couple of weeks!

Earlier this week we went to playgroup and Payton and I had a great time. He got to eat with his buddies at the kid's table!


And, he discovered his love for water slides. He probably climbed up and slid down this slide at least 20 times. He loved it so much!