The Claytons

New Camera

2012-02-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

YUP! Curtis got me a new camera for my birthday! Isn't he wonderful!! I've been wanting a new one for a LONG time - our old little guy just wasn't doing the job:( So he got booted and voila! New, crisp, beaUtiful pictures!!

I actually don't know how to use it...aside from turning it on and pushing the button but there are some fun things I'm sure we can do with it...guess I just need to practice:)

I decided today that I would learn how to use it and Piper was my subject! She's such a trooper...still don't know anything...guess there will be more practice shots to come haha!

Becky Bob!

2012-02-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

We were so so lucky to have Becky Bob visit us this weekend! She had training in Dallas last week and this week has to meet a client in San Antonio so...she visited us in Houston for the weekend!!! Hooray! We had so much fun! We played, ate, went to Houston's Gallaria mall, ate, had a Super Bowl party, ate some more!!

Did I mention I MAY have damaged my sister??...Well ...Curtis whipped out the super fun motorcycles for us all to take for a little spin...Becky said "no, that's ok" But we INSISTED... here she is prepping (Isn't she bEAUtiful:)....

Learning the ropes...

And she's off...

...Sadly my Camera ran out of memory JUST as she crashed almost into the fence and everso gracefully flipped over the bike, smiling all the while, landing on her trusty shoulder...it swelled...
not sure if she'll visit again...j/k

Since recieving my lovely new camera (more on that later...), Bailey had become less and less cooperative for my picture taking...Becky had to sneak up on her for this lovely shot

Our motocross girls.

We had such a fun weekend! Hope we get to do it again real SOON!

Sweet Bailey

2012-01-29T10:05:00.001-08:00

So Bailey has been having it a little rough lately...She is being such a stinker! and gets in trouble ALL the time!! I think it really started just before Lena was born and has progressively gotten a little worse, plus tag on that she's in her terrible twos and poof monster child. I have been attempting to potty train her but with NO success and when I ask her why she doesn't want to go in the potty she says, "because I'm the baby." Ok so I get that she's feeling a little shoved to the side and Lena has stolen her lime light but I'm not sure what to do about it besides try and give her more attention...but when I do try and play with her or whatever she does things to tick me off and I think it's on PURPOSE! Well the other night she was finishing up her dinner - piper and Curtis had gone up to start baths and I was washing dishes - I looked up at her and she smiled SOOO big and cute and said "mommy, I love you" so sweet! and then followed with "Mommy...when can I be your baby again?" Uggg! Talk about heart wrenching! She is just the sweetest little thing in the whole world and I'm SOOO grateful to have her in our little family and get to be her mom. She is really the happiest kid I've ever met and literally bounces through life. I think she's a lot like Curtis. She makes me smiles ALL the time. The other day we went into Walmart and I got marshmallows. Bailey was sitting in the front part of the cart and wanted to hold the marshmallows so I let her. As I was getting some other things I over hear and see out of the corner of my eye Bailey hug the marshmallows and say "I love you mallows." I mean come on! Adorable! Then we went to target on Friday and we walked past the snack isle and there was a ginormous tub of cheese puff balls. Bailey spotted them and Squealed in delight "ohhhhhh I LOVE you!!" and ran up to them, grabbed a tub and hugged it with ALL her might!! I've NEVER even bought them before but somehow she LOVES them. Anyway, she is just so precious and I hope I haven't traumatized her and she keeps her sweet optimism forever!

More Festivities:)

2011-12-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

Piper had her big Christmas party at school today! She was SOOOOO excited for it and got up early and everything! She said to me yesturday..."Guess what mom...I'm really excited for my party tomorrow!" That is big for Piper! She doesn't really express excitement for the future like that - I don't know how to explain it...I guess she's just oblivious to everything. We made these little reindeer candy bars for her teachers which she thought was so fun and LOVED writing on the back...To: My Teacher From: Piper (she has 21 teachers! I don't know all their names haha hence the 'my teacher') I mean she insisted on writing it ALL out. I may have sneaked a few and done myself because it took ALL AFTERNOON - LITERALLY!

Anyway, she had a blast and came home with lots of little toys and treats and a BIG smile on her face!! I think their favorite toy was the sticky hand things that you throw and they stick on the wall you know? They've been playing with those ALL night long.

I'm so glad she is getting this experience! It is so good for her to make friends and feel special. The teachers (high school students) are so nice and she loves them!

So guess what I saw sneaky Jack the Elf up to...

So excited for them to bust through tomorrow:)

Our House!

2011-12-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

So...I have a couple requests for house pictures (this is for you Tiff and Carole!) I actually don't have hardly ANY so once I, ahem, clean my house :) I will put some good ones up. I always like seeing different houses/floor plans and decorations too so hopefully this will get you an idea for now. This first picture is the loft upstairs which has been deemed the play room. I liked this floor plan because when you go up the stairs it's a hall/balcony so you have to turn right to go into the playroom. So I can keep the mess contained a little better:)

This is the Kitchen not much of a picture of the kitchen but the girls sure are cute:)

This is Piper and Bailey's room right when we got it done. Now there are some pictures up and Bailey got her new big girl bedding for her b-day so that's up too. The nursery wasn't done when I took this picture but I was sure I took some of it when it was done but I guess not:( It's really cute though - think PINK haha - I'll get that taken ASAP! Then here is an outside shot before it was totally done. The front door is glass and the shutters are tan now.

So anyway there's a little glimps. I'll work on cleaning so I can get some good shots up later. I expect pics of your new house Carole!!

Jack

2011-12-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

Our friendly Elf on the Shelf, Jack, has finally arrived! He made his grand appearance at breakfast Sunday morning and brought with him Snow-covered donuts and hot cocoa with snowballs and even mini kisses from Santa's Reindeer!!

Jack wrote the girls a little note which they were SOOO excited about and Piper couldn't BELIEVE that Jack new about the horse she wants for Christmas. They got new sock slippers and special sippies - fun fun! What a great little Elf!
Already the girls have been angels because they now that sneaky little Elf is watching:)

It sure has been fun so far! And I'm looking forward to all the fun places we'll find our little Elf (thank-you Pinterest!)

December Heat

2011-12-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

So no Pictures today:( But I just HAD to post this for memory sake!! We've had just a WONDERFUL weekend! Well I have at least;) Last night was Curtis's work party so we had a real babysitter come over and watch ALL the girls and Curtis and I were FREE! It was wonderful! We were, however, a whole HOUR late to the dinner (and I think they waited for us - SAD!) but Curtis was working late and I couldn't get the babysitter fast enough blah blah...we made it though and the dinner was SOOOOOOOO good! I've hinted a thousand times to Curtis that I would love to go back for our anniversary, my birthday, columbus day... So anyway that was fun and then today we had family pictures taken which really isn't that fun and I don't know if we got any good ones but for some freakish reason I'm not stressed about them...then we had some way fun birthday parties to go to at parks which was soooo fun. (and the girls just LOVED playing with daddy!!!) And then for the BEST part...Curtis and I went on ANOTHER date (sort of ) to get groceries. Kennedy came over and babysat so we could do some errands without the little monsters-I mean munchkins. It was beautiful! And Curtis had some coupons for free hot cocoa at starbucks so we cranked the airconditioner and had hot chocolate on our little drive - gotta love Texas:)

Anyway, it has just been such a wonderful weekend I think really because we got to spend time with Curty!! We sure do love him!

Santa Claus!

2011-12-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus has come to town! Tonight Santa came to the League City Library! And we were ready and waiting. Sadly we missed his grand entrance on an old fire engine (because turns out it is sooooo not easy to get anywhere at a specific time with 3 little kids - Lena spit up ALL over me, Bailey wouldn't get her buckles on and somewhere in there we had a stinky diaper) But that's ok - we still got to see the engine (which was really cool!) and of course we still got to see SANTA! However, Lena was the only one brave enough to sit on his lap:) I think santa was worried about holding her but he really didn't have an option, I just handed her over and walked away to get my picture haha.

This is as close as I could get the other girls:) Well, they got a tiny bit closer but both were on verge of tears. They lasted long enough to get their candy cane and ornament and then ran away. Bailey told Santa she wanted a cookie and Piper had me tell Santa she wantes a big horse (the one at target).

After meeting Santa, they had snack and a little craft! How fun! and Cute!! The girls LOVED it.

And Bailey was very very proud of her ginger bread girl.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T13:08:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year! Hooray!! Saturday we headed over to Lowes to get our CHRISTMAS TREE! The girls, especially Piper, were soooooo excited. Piper's been bouncing off the walls ever since:) She kept asking 'are we going to decorate it? When are we going to decorate it? Now, are we going to now?' Seriously NONSTOP!
We started Sunday night but ran out of lights and ended up finishing Monday for FHE. It was so fun! The girls LOVED the Christmas music and especially LOVED looking at all the ornaments. I'd say our house was pretty Jolly!

LOVE this picture of my 4 favorite people!

Gobble Gobble!

2011-11-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone! Can you believe it - time sure does fly!! We had a wonderful weekend and were so grateful to get to celebrate with our favorite Texans! Julie is a trooper and still cooked Thanksgiving diner despite being prego! (Yuck raw turkey- I don't know if I could have done it while pregnant) It was a wonderful meal and we had so much fun chillin' and being fat on turkey day! Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on gratitude which was good for me...we have so much to be grateful for! I'm so grateful for my family and that we are all so healthy and that we live in a country that allows us the freedom of religion and opportunity to work hard to provide so many luxuries to our children. I know - not eloquently put but I was thinking a lot of those poor Romanian children in the orphanages and how grateful I am that I don't have to send my children away just so they can have a "shot" at a better life or send them away just to "hope" they will get fed more than I can feed them. I'm so grateful that a.) have the knowledge that I have B.) have the resources I need and of course C.) have a wonderful husband who works hard for us so that we can provide our children with the basics and beyond. What a huge blessing!

Anyway...back to pictures...

The girls had a great morning hanging out with daddy outside while I cooked. I love this action shot of Bailey

And Piper is always such a little mom! Love the boots and tutus:)

Here are my favorite turkey's playing play dough Wednesday night waiting for daddy to get home and start the celebrations.

Picture Overload!

2011-11-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

I was going to blog yesturday because it was Lena's 3 month birthday but just ran out of time! I think a day late will be ok though:) Yup...Lena is 3 months old!! How fast time flies! I can't believe it - she is getting big so fast. She is just always soooooo alert and loves to smile at ANYONE who will smile back - heck! Even if they don't smile back like the puppy on her bouncer, she still smiles! She giggles REALLY cute! It's not dainty at all which you would think it would be by looking at her. She has just discovered her hands and has a great time going to town chowing on them. Talk about slobber! Piper and I were trying to get a good 3 month old picture of her last night but this is the best we could get. I think all of them turned out with her looking like she'd just seen a ghost. Anyway, she is a beautiful, sweet, perfect baby and I just wish time could stand still so I could enjoy it a little longer.

Curtis was really late on Monday so we decided to have FHE last night and we decided to start holding our kids to a chore chart. I know! We are aweful and insane for not having started yet but I just wasn't sure how to go about it. Well last night we made up charts and talked about what all our chores are blah blah and guess what... Piper is SOOOOOOOO excited about it!!! I knew she would be because she is awesome like that but I didn't think she'd be THIS into it! So today we decorated little jars for each of them that when they go over and above their chores or do a good deed or are super nice to me or each other they can earn a pom pom to put in it. Once it's full they get to go on a special outing with one of us - Piper is STOKED! All day she's been cleaning up after herself and asking if she can help and saying please and thank you and EVEN sharing! I love it! I hope she keeps it up because I REALLY REALLY want to take her to the Nutcracker in Houston - wouldn't that be so fun!

Moving on...I went to a thrift store and got this little bumbo seat and LOVE it. Lena is still not a fan of laying on her back and so this chair is PERFECT for her. I just threw this pic in because it has all my cute girls in it.

This last weekend we went to Houston outdoor theater for a super fun russian circus performance totally FREE! and we got seats up close! How great is that. Piper LOVED it and it was actually a really good performance!

On October 30th we blesses little Lena! She was so good and SOOOO cute. This is her in her blessing dress. I was sad I couldn't use the same dress that Piper and Bailey were blessing in but they were blessed so early and we waited so long to bless Lena BUT it was fun to get to pick out a new one! I thought she was ADORABLE!!

We were so lucky to get to have Curtis's family out for it and had SOOOO much fun with them. Wow! it sure was a whirlwin (sp?) of a weekend though! We went to the beach on saturday, rode the 4 wheeler and motorcycle in the afternoon and went to Kemah in the evening! Sunday we blessed Lena in the Relief Society room (haha - our bad! we didn't know it was stake conferance until after everyone had bought there tickets - oops!) which was nice to have our family and close friends there then had a BBQ at our house after. It sure was a party! In the afternoon everyone (minus me and chelsea) went on a walk to the park by our house and little Bailey hurt her ankle:( going down the slide. She crawled for the next week but she's back up on it now at least until she decides Lena has been held too much and it's her turn - then she acts like it hurts again;)

Here's my little beach baby! She ALWAYS has been since she was a tiny baby- LOVES the beach! I swear she could entertain herself at the beach indefinately!

(I swear the water was warm and I was NOT torturing her) little Lena, however, is not sure about the beach yet

Bailey entertained herself with the birds at the beach. I think she chased them the whole time we were there!

Halloween was a blast! Piper and Bailey were Minie and Mickey Mouse at the ward trunk-or-treat and Lena was a lobster in Chef Curtis's pot. Then for Halloween Piper wanted to be a butterfly (from TWO years ago! I couldn't believe it still fit!) and Bailey was Mickey and Lena was a little pumpkin. We partied at Julie's AWESOME Halloween party and then went off to collect some sweets! Bailey didn't fair too well in the treats department because she couldn't walk and therefore couldn't go to as many houses but I don't think she minded - we just hung out at Julie's house and ate all her Halloween candy:) while Piper went trick-or-treating with the big kids and Julie.

It sure has been a fun month and we are still on a high from having so many cousins here to play with! Wish we could do it more often!

Pumkin Patch:)

2011-10-25T20:34:00.001-07:00

I know! I have a lot of catching up to do but I thought I'd start with the most recent seeing as it is the most festive activity we have done lately:) This last weekend Curtis actually didn't have to work! Hooray! So, although I REALLY wanted to go to a pumkin patch that was almost 2 hour away with pony rides and pig races, we instead decided to try out the little patch by our house. And it was still FUN! It was super hot and the mosquitos had a field day on us but we got the best darn pumkins in League City:) Kennedy was staying with us for the weekend and the girls sure LOVED having her around!!!!!! Bailey is still asking if "Kenny" can sit by her in the car. I told the girls they could go pick whatever pumkin they wanted...Piper came back with one of those tiny gord pumkins haha. She was obsessed with it and therefore Bailey was too. I couldn't get them to focus on picking out a carvable pumkin until I agreed to buying a "baby" pumking too. Funny what they decide is obsessive worthy:)

I Love this picture of Bailey helping pick up the HEAVY pumpkin - she sure helped daddy out:) Well this WAS the pumkin Bailey picked until she discovered that Piper picked a white one so guess what...yup bye bye orange pumpkin and we hunted for another white one:)

Piper found a little hay pile and LOVED it...

Bailey, however, did not! Check out my blue pumkpkin!!!!

All in all - Good pumkin pickin'

Curtis's New Toy!

2011-09-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

I thought I should maybe post a picture of Curtis's new toy! What do ya think?! A couple months ago Curtis saw this on Craigs List and just COULDN'T resist. I was very pregnant and couldn't try it out but a couple weekends ago we all played on it for a while and MAN that thing is FUN!!!!!!!!! I think Curtis figures he'll make little tom boys out of the girls since we don't have any boys...Not sure how that's going... Piper REFUSED to try it until finally I made her! Such a good mom I know. But hey, she ended up loving it. As for Bailey, it didn't take much coaxing. I think Curtis has his little tom boy with her without even trying:)

More of Lena!

2011-09-07T13:12:00.001-07:00

I just got back some of Lena's new born pictures! The best are yet to come so if I don't' have your address email it to me so I can send you an announcement!!

I can't decide if i like the black and white or color better!

Baby Lena

2011-08-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

All my kids are asleep (well at least Piper's having rest time:)) So I guess I better document how little Lena got here right!?! Ok, here goes...

Monday I went to the Doctors and was at a 1 so we decided to strip my membranes. I had a few "contractions" but nothing severe. Then Tuesday I had them more intense and a tiny bit more regular so I thought it would at least be within the next day or two. I was hoping because we went to the beach and I had to lug all that stuff around in the 100+ weather it would, you know, get things going. Nope WRONG! (remember my due date was Tuesday Aug 9th!!!!!!!!or the 11th no one really knows for sure haha!) So all "contractions" stopped by that evening and nothing really happened (aside from the random "contraction" here or there) until...

Side note: As ticked as I was that this baby wasn't coming, it was actually a good thing and I knew it! We A.) really needed to get a car that fit everyone which we were able to do on Saturday and B.) wanted grandmommy to get here to help with the girls! She was coming Wed!!

Sunday morning I woke up around 6:30am with a few mediocre (sp?) contractions. Nothing too insane but I was suspicious that this might be the day. So we all got up and got ready for church. Curtis thought it was a good excuse to miss but I didn't want to sit around having my mind on contractions all day. So we went to church at 9am and I had contractions all through sacrament meeting. They sarted being pretty regular so I timed them and they were 6 to 7 minutes apart. I had TOTALLY forgotten when your supposed to go the doctor - is it 5 min apart?? So anyway we went about our business. Next sunday school then relief. The contractions became more irregular and so I gave up keeping track of them.
We went home, had lunch, took a little nap and them kaboom! They started HURTING! And I'm so stupid, I was like 'it's not that bad, let's wait until they are really intense to go to the hopital' Yeah that was DUMB! We had plans for the Bishop to come over to visit at 5 and then we were having Donald and Julie and gang over for dinner. Curtis, being the wise husband that he is, said we should cancel everything but me being the NOT so wise one said oh no we shouldn't, it's not that bad. (I think I forgot how this labor thing goes! See last time I was induced so the contractions were WAY more intense and I kept thinking this time that when they get THAT intense I'll go in. Well, silly me! They don't get THAT intense when you aren't induced - at least not until the end hint hint. Oh well, now I know) So the Bishop came over and I could barely pay attention to what they were saying and was trying to not let them know I was having contractions because uh AWKWARD! I think I did a pretty good job but after they left Curtis was like come on we cant have donald and julie over with you like this. And AGAIN I was like no I'm fine I already made the food. So poor Donald and Julie come over and I'm totally moaning in bed, taking hot baths, pacing! (P.S. Bailey was so cute durring this time - she found something that she decided looked like a phone and was talking on it as I lay moaning in bed and then I hear her say into her phone " mommy has owies" Haha I laghed )So they eat, Curtis askes if I want to play games and at that point I think I'm going to DIE so I give him a look like seriously. So LUCKILY Julie is a very wise person and offers to take the girls home with them ( I was thinking we would just wait LONGER yes I know I'm and idiot and then bring them on our way tot he hospital) If she wouldn't have taken them then...who knows who knows!! So after they all had left I was like (are you just reading this and thinking man what an IDIOT!) lets watch Harry Potter. So we begin...

Seriously like Two minutes later I have this HORRIBLE contraction - It wasn't like a cramp it was like sharp, I'd never had a contraction like that before even with Piper. So then I'm like crap that's not good so I tell Curtis and he's like dude if you have this baby here NOT COOL MAN!

He still had to shower so off he goes to shower - I start packing my bags (yes I actually waited until the last minute to pack my bags) Hey at least I have the girls' bags packed. And then we're off to the hospital! Every single bump Curtis hit I seriously wanted to DIE! I almost wanted him to pull over because it was just so not worth it. Call the ambulance - make them come to me! I know I know ! I'm the biggest baby EVER!

So we Finaly make it to the hospital and I don't know where to go. I forgot to ask! But I thought I remembered last time going to the ER . So we pull up and I asked Curtis to go ask and make sure before I get out. So he does and he comes back and said that they wanted him to bring me in and then park. Yeah that was not going to happen! I'm so sure - me go up ALONE! NO WAY (and I'm SOSOOO glad I didn't) So I'm like go I'll goi with you to park and then we can go up together. So we park and slowly make our way inside.

OK so this is totally awkward. I guess I'm just really self consious but I really don't like being in pain or ACTING in pain in front of people I don't know. Well there are tons of people in the waiting room of the ER! Come on really at 8:30 at night people! Have your emergencies earlier - just kidding. I just felt so self concious walking in and everyone like oh man she's having that baby! I don't know it was just wierd and I had to try harder to act not in paing and it was just exhausting!!

So we get in and the nurse comes down with a wheel chair. Again, I just don't want everyone seeing me go up in a wheel chair not to mention it hurt SUPER bad to sit down so I KINDLY declined. Well actually I said, "Do I have to go in the wheel chair, can I just walk?" And gues what the nurse says to me... "You could have the first time" in serious ATTITUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that! I mean aren't they required to be nice to you when your in labor!!??!!! (I guess she had come down once to get me already but since I parked the car with Curtis she had to go back up and was bugged) Whatever, I got my way and walked up. The nurse was walking so fast though I couln't have kept up it I WASN'T having contractions and she was so bugged every time I had to stop for a contraction. Looking back, she was probably just worried I was going to have the baby there on the floor but still. Anyway guess what welcomed us when we got to Labor and Delivery?

A bunch of scowling nurses!!! YUP! I don't know if it was the timing (but seriously they choose to work at night come on!) or it was just a bad day for all of them or what but they were not happy to see us. Again WHATEVER! I just remember seeing the most scowly nurse and saying in my head 'PLEASE bless she's not my nurse, PLEASE bless she's not my nurse!' Guess who was my nurse... You guessed it!

So I change and the nurse checks me and get this - the whole time i'm like Please bless they don't send me home. seriously I didn't think I was far enough along! (O.K. back up... the whole way walking up to L and D I was saying "get the anesthiologist! over and over because I was NOT about to put up with more pain! And I didn't want to have to wait for him to be paged then wait for him to get to the hospital seeing as it was the weekend and it was night.) K then the nurse says 'oh I'm sorry'. I thought maybe she thinks she's hurting me so I ignored it but she says it again and I'm like what? And she says..."your an 8." Come again! No I'm not! She's like you might not get an epidural it takes the lab a half hour to get your tests back. All of a sudden nurses are everywhere taking blood, hooking up the IV, asking me questions and durring all this administration has the nerve to ask to see Curtis. I stepped in on that one and said can't it wait for heaven sake!
Amazinly the Anesthesiologist comes in then ready to give me one - seriously a MIRACLE!
But then I hum ha around about getting one because who wants to go through all that if it's not going to kick in in time. So I ask the nurse if there is time for it to kick in and she says she doesn't know and the anesthesiologist is just as nice as everyone else and is like Now or never - exact words. At that very second I was having a contraction and was like do it NOW! So he did...THREE TIMES!!! AND he got mad at me when I flinched the second time! But in my defense I thought the first one had worked and he didn't tell me everything he was doing like they usually do so I totally wasn't expecting it. His exact words were "what was THAT!" when I flinched. Yeah he pretty much HATED me! and then after it was all done it didn't work so I made him come back three times to up the ammy! He REALLY hated me after that! In fact I was in the middle of calling him in for a forth time when the nurse was like just push it out already. Luckily it did work and all went well. Once it kicked in I could finally rest. I'm sure it slowed everything down but I was so ok with that - I needed to rest! Amazingly I could feel my legs (and even move them) and the contractions (they just didn't hurt) with this epidural. So I could feel myself pushing which was helpful. Before when I've had them I have to ask if I'm pushing! I did have to push a little longer than with Bailey but no 3 hours like with Piper. I think it was only about 20 minutes.

Finally, Lena was born! She had maconium so I didn't get her right away but I got her pretty quick. I actually prefer them to clean them off a little before giving me the baby - is that wrong? I dont' want to touch all that gross stuff! She nursed great and slept with me for a good little bit before her first bath. Curtis and I were both surprise she doen't look at all like either of the girls. She has strawberry blond hair and her cheeks are normal size, not the huge marshmellows the other girls had. But she is still a cutie!

So that's my novel of a birth story!

Lena Marie

2011-08-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Our little Lena was born Monday Aug. 15! She was born at 1:08 am :( not recomended) and weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 21 in long! She's a GREAT baby and we're so glad she is finally here! we waited FOREVER! but I'm glad she decided to join the fam:)

Due Date

2011-08-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

So I found out yesturday that today is my actual due date:) I went to a doctor apt yesturday and long story short (with a little confusion on my part) I found out that although they said my due date is Aug 11, I am actually 40 weeks today! However...NO baby yet:( So... I think we'll go to the beach:) Here are our most recent pictures at the beach back when Dan and MaryAnn visited. Fun Fun!

Pipers

2011-07-07T20:46:00.001-07:00

Piper's little friend in South Carolina used to call her Pipers - I was thinking about that the other day, hence the title. I threw in a picture of Bailey because they were just so gosh darn cute in their matching dresses! I love this picture of Piper because she looks SO confidant!! Like 'here I am!'

Anyway, today was a sad day for Piper. She woke up with...

PINK EYE!!! Sadness! I've never had pink eye and wasn't really sure that's what it was but I figured I'd better take her to the doc just to make sure. Thank Heaven I did because...

One of her tubes fell out and she actually had an EAR INFECTION!!!! OH NO THEY ARE BACK!!!!

I couldn't believe it! I told the doctor I wasn't sure it was pink eye because she really wasn't complaining about them or itching them. The doc asked if she had a runny nose or cough. And actually she JUST got a cough on Tuesday. THEN she asked if she was complaining about her ears. I said 'no' because she wasn't and then explained that she had tubes blah blah. So the doctor looked her over and turns out ONE of her tubes has fallen out and GUESS WHAT, that ear has an infection. So poor little Piper(s) has an ear infection, a cough, and pink eye in BOTH eyes!! She's so tough, though, and never complains about being in pain! Anyway, thank heaven for antibiotics and happy 4 year olds. HOPEFULLY, this is her only infection and we won't have to re-do the tubes thing!! NOT FUN for her or my wallet!

Summer Fun!

2011-07-06T03:16:00.001-07:00

We've been having tons of fun this summer and keeping super busy!! I just love the Houston Children's Museum and so do the girls! We went a couple weeks ago with some friends and I think we could have spend a couple days there!! We loved it so much we got a year pass!! The girls LOVE LOVED the shopping center and could have spent all day just there!! Then they have the vet clinic which, of course, was a huge hit. Bailey adopted the big brown dog and wanted to take it home:) I think the girls want a dog:)

And THANK HEAVEN for POOLS!!! We've been keeping relatively cool this summer thanks to the many pools around. We LOVE the pool where we live and have been taking advantage of it weekly! The girls have turned into fish!

This last week Piper took swimming lessons from a girl at church. She had such a blast and has really gained a lot of confidance. She kept begging for more... can I dive again, can I jump in again, is it my turn again. Too fun!

And of course there is gymnastics! WE LOVE
gymnastics!! Piper has gained SOOOOO much self confidence doing it and just LOVES it. I was going to quit when summer came but I just can't bring myself to pull her out. She loves it and i love watching her and Bailey loves watching her!! So for now we're sticking with it:)

New Post

2011-06-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

So last night I was looking at blogs and Curtis asked if I had blogged lately. I said no, of course, feeling a little guilty because I said I would be better...but used the excuse that I hadn't uploaded pictures to the computer yet and that was why- whatever. Anyway, so I decided to put the pictures on the computer today and do a little blogging but then of course which pics to you choose there are so many! Then I came across these...and HAD to show these first because you HAVE to understand the sequence of events that day...

Grandmommy and Daddy sent the girls a package that came the night before these pictures but curtis told them they had to wait until I got home to open it. Well I ended up being late that night and they were in bed when I got home. So the next morning I woke up to Piper holding this package in my face asking if we could open it. So we all get up and open it...the girls were SOOOO excited that they sent them new matching dresses and just HAD to wear them!! Super cute...life goes on... fighting happens, I yell, I shower, more fighting and screaming, I threaten lives, more fighting, more yelling...

Fast forward to today. I'm looking throught these pictures and realized I didn't take them...

I don't usually shoot pictures of the back of Bailey's head or the floor - right...

Then I see this!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! What is THAT!!!
What the heck kind of face is THAT?!?!?!?! She looks ready to POUNCE! NOW I know what they were fighting about while I was showering!! Piper had gotten ahold of the camera and Bailey WANTED IT!!!!! (Bailey is TOUGH - she will BEAT on Piper if she feels justified)

By the end of this fighting and yelling I did manage to get a happy picture of them in their dresses - thanks Grandmommy and Daddy!

Memories

2011-05-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

So the other night we were eating dinner together and Piper did something that sparked a memory of when she was a baby. So I proceeded to tell her the story which she laughed and laughed about. Then she said tell me another story about when I was a baby. So I thought of one and she loved it and laughed and laughed. Then she said, 'tell me a story about Bailey when she was a baby' and so I did and they laughed. Then, yup you guessed it, she asked for ANOTHER story and...I COULDN'T THINK OF ANY MORE!!! SAD!!!! How sad is it that I can think of maybe two funny stories about Piper and one for Bailey. So I told her I would before bed and hurried and grabbed my journal to see if it would spark some memories. Sadly it did not. they were all pretty boring entries but there would be pages that said..."write about Piper's Christmas when she was scared of Santa and the reindeer...Piper buying crocks at walmart... and so on. BUT guess who never wrote about those things:( So I've been pretty mad at myself and Curtis keeps telling me to write in my journal more or I'll regret it which is so true (how come it doesn't apply to him though - I never see him writing in his journal!!) So that's a new goal of mine. However, today I have been bored and was looking at the blog and realized I blogged about a bunch of stuff I never thought worthy to journal about HOORAY! SO now I am committing to being a better blogger!

SO what's new in Claytonville...

We just got back from Disney World a couple weeks ago! We had so much fun and I need to post pictures but there are SOOOOOO many that I just can't deal with going through them right now! So those pics are to come. The picture above is the day after we got back of the girls playing with the legos Grandmommy and daddy got them. Piper is OBSESSED!

The girls are doing great. I think Piper is allergic to the sun!! Well probably not really but she had a rash all over her body that only comes out when we've been outside. Not sure what to do about that one...

Bailey's little personality is SOOOOOO increadibly fun. I just love her. I cannot get enough of her little personality. She cracks me up DAILY. This is her most recent cuteness... (note: she just started saying yes, no has been her word of choice thus far in her little life, and she says it "da" AND she just started saying Piper's name which is "Pa Pa" and she says meow meow for cat.)

so saying prayers at night, we of course help her and this is what I heard the other night...

Curtis: Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day and our many blessings...

Bailey: silence

Curtis: We're grateful for mommy

Bailey: mama

Curits: We're gratefull for Daddy

Bailey: dada

Curtis: We're grateful for Piper

Bailey: Pa Pa

Curtis: We're grateful for doggies

Bailey: doggy

Curtis: We're grateful for kitty cats

Bailey: meowmeow

Curtis: We're grateful for the fun we had playing with our friends and for all the good food we have

Bailey: Da

Curtis: Please bless that we can have a good night sleep

Bailey: uh - huh

Curits: In the name of Jesus Christ - Amen

Bailey: Amm

Green Beans

2011-04-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

So the other night I made green beans. Like REAL green beans =fresh not from a can. I didn't think the girls would like them as much because well I didn't why I was a kid BUT they loved them. Hooray! Well that's what I thought... (keep in mind green beans have been Bailey's favorite veggie for all time) but then...Bailey discovered something... Green beans actually have little beans inside of them?? I decided that since the green beans were such a success I would make them again. Well this time Bailey decided she would examine the bean and guess what she found... Yup that little bean thing inside her green bean. And guess what...She did NOT like it! She proceeded to examine EACH and every green bean to see if there was in fact a little bean thingy in each and of course there was and that of course ment that NONE of her green beans were edible. Guess we'll have to see if she ever eats green beans again.

Preschool

2011-04-07T13:17:00.001-07:00

For Piper's "preschool" we took a little field trip to the Blue Bonnet fields. It was actually really fun and we got a couple cute pictures in the pretty "flowers" (or are they weeds?) I kindda wondered what could possibly entertain us for very long sitting in a bunch of flowers but the kids actually loved it! We took pictures (that they did not like) then had a little lesson on Texas (did you know these are the Texas state flower?) and then the kids entertained themselves with fireants and spiders for the rest of our outing. Pretty fun!

It's a girl!

2011-03-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

I asked Piper this morning if she wanted a baby brother or sister. She said she wanted a baby sister because ... "I don't like boys, I only like daddy boys." Well, she got her wish - we are having another GIRL! Hooray for girls!

Third Bundle

2011-03-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

Haha! You caught that! I thought you would see it first Carole! Or at least comment on it first. Yup we are having another :) Sometime in August. My doctor thinks around the 13th but I think around the 21st - we have differing opinions :) I am huge however so maybe she's right :) We were supposed to find out on Friday (what we are having) - which was when I planned to blog about it but I had to cancel :( So now my appointment is for Monday but I might have to cancel that one too - we'll see. I know I know WHO cancels their ultra sound appointment right! Make it work- haha! But we get to have company this weekend (Piper is SOOOOOO excited) and I want this baby to get all the attentions the others got for it's ultra sound so I'll wait (maybe;). Actually, I just need to see if anyone would be willing to babysit. Anyway, we're excited. I would love another girl! (or boy but I LOVE girly stuff) plus I have tons of girl names I'm DYING to use! Curtis, of course, wants a boy to prove his manlyness;) Just Kidding! He really wants a boy to take on scout campouts and fourwheeling/motorcycling stuff. Piper has made it clear that she will not accept a boy only a little sister. Bailey just wants ALL my attention ALWAYS - other than that she doesn't care. Guess we'll see what happens!

Camping

2011-03-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

So after our last camping experience I swore never to camp again. I was seven or eight months pregnant, we had a TINY tent, and I had to walk, in my opinion, WAY too far to go to the bathroom at 10pm, 1am, 4am, and 6am! Then it rained, aLOT! So I was not impressed. But a few weeks ago some friends in the ward said they were getting a group together to go camping up somewhere north of Houston and asked if we wanted to go... I really wanted to go to be social but wasn't so sure about the camping part of it since I am yet again pregnant. Anyway, we decided to go and had SOOOOO much fun! We borrowed Donald and Julie's MASSIVE tent (thanks!), camped RIGHT next to the bathroom (well not so close that it smelled- haha), and brought a lot of GOOD food! It was so much fun!

We got there late on Friday and just had a quick dinner and then in the morning everyone got together for breakfast. I LOVE this picture of Bailey's mouth WIDE open!

We went for a fun bike ride and hiked and then went over to the lake to do a little fishing! Piper got a new fishing pole and was SOOOOOO excited to fish - I'm not sure why. We've never really talked about fishing but about a month ago she said she wanted to go fishing - talk about random! So here was her chance. She didn't catch anything but had a blast just holding the pole. She was beaming the whole time!!
Bailey, on the other hand, found other things to amuse herself! haha - leaves and sticks! It's so funny...I was thinking, better yet worrying, about how I would keep them entertained with no toys or what nots but they were thoroughly engaged/entranced/preoccupied by EVERYTHING from sticks to dogs to water to trees to turtle to ALLIGATORS - you name it, they found some way to make it so much fun!

Lastly, we decided to take advantage of the canoe our friends brought and went for a little ride. As you can see Piper is STILL obsessed with her fishing pole!

And Bailey was NOT impressed AT ALL with the canoe. She screamed the WHOLE time!

So that was our fun February camping trip! I may even concider doing it again sometime :)

Super Bowl Sunday

2011-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since i've posted! I used to blog so faithfully but have just really been slacking lately! Playing catch up is to daunting so I'm just going to start from now and just be better - K! So we had a little Super Bowl shin dig with the girls for the Super Bowl. Really it was just my excuse to eat junk! The girls really got into it though - actually I think they were mostly just into the food too but we had a lot of fun. As I was getting the food ready I looded over to see Bailey just entranced by the game and thought it was the CUTEST thing ever! She's the closest thing Curtis is going to get to a boy I think. Our little tom boy. A friend asked me to post some pictures of her and as I was looking through my most recent pictures I realized she looks so sloppy and dishevled in ALL of them! Her hair's always in her face and she just looks like a football player despite her small frame. She just continues to crack us up!

Anyway, we had a blast eating, pretending to care who won (go packers?? the bears should have gone right!), and just being silly!

Halloween 2010!

2010-11-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

Here are our Halloween 2010 pictures! We celebrated the whole month and had such a blast getting ready for the big day! To kick off the creepy festivities we started the month with a party with Piper's cousins. Piper had such a blast getting to hang out with ALL of them!! We had fun treats, did a craft, had a scavenger hunt around the apartment property, did the mummy wrap game and even watched a Halloween movie. Piper was in HEAVEN!

On Hallween, we went trick-or-treating with the kids in Donald and Julie's neighborhood and made bank with the candy!

Piper was a princess for halloween and Donald was her prince - giving her the royal treatment by carrying her! Bailey was the CUTEST bumble bee ever and cas content to hitch a ride in Julie's wagon and eat the pretzles she scored at the first house.

As we were leaving Donald and Julie's for the night, i snatched a chocolate dipped pretzle for ME to eat on the way home - obviously that didn't happen. Bailey caught sight of it and that's the end of that story.

Piper with her stash! Between that, the trunk-or-treat candy and the candy from school, I think she's set!

Leaves are Falling All Around!

2010-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

So... we were SOOOO Super lucky to get to go home to IL last month to see Glam-mommy and Grandaddy AND Becky! We had a blast and the weather was GORGEOUS!! It was so nice to chill with mom and dad and see GG ang GG pa! We had lots of time to play at parks, go to the apple orchard and... play in the leaves! I've been building the leaves up for a while now and the first full day we were in IL I decided to take the girls over to GG's to play in the leaves. Piper would have NOTHING to do with it and I was SOOOO sad! I THOUGHT she had been excited for this moment. Turns out she was sick!!! So sadly I sat her in the car (didn't want her around GG and get her sick - danger) while Bailey, GG and I played in the leaves. She got better that night and the next day (and every day after) we came back and had such a blast. Bailey wasn't so sure about them but by the time we came back to TX I had gotten her to run into them. Then once she realized the leaves were touching her she would get out.

Glam-mommy got this little play set for the girls to play on in the back yard - It looked so dwarfed in their huge backyard but the girls LOVED it! We had lots of fun just with this little slide - makes me miss having a yard:(

I love that GG got in the leaves with Bailey! They just had so much fun! I could have watched them all day!

Curtis came for one of the weekends were were there and we got to go to the Apple Orchard!! Such a hit! We had a blast. So glad he was able to escape all his hard work and just play with us!

August continued

2010-09-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

Ok so more of August. Curtis had to work a lot I mentioned and so one Saturday I was not about to hang out at the apt again so I decided to call up Julie to see if she wanted to hang out. We decided to go to the Alligator park. BOO! Julie was telling me about the one they had in Myrtle Beach that sounded so cool... this one was not as cool:( It was super pricey but not much to it. We got in - saw an alligator and that was about it - we were HIGHLY dissapointed and I was REALLY embarassed that I had suggested it. I mean we saw bigger alligators at Julie's house in Summerville! Their (the alligator people) only saving grace was a little learning show they did at the end. We got to pet a little Alligator, hold a snake and Piper got to hold a baby alligator, and they showed us Big Al which was a REALLY big alligator that the alligator man kissed. So that was cool.

Not sure why thse pictures wont rotate! but oh well, you get the gist right. Bailey, again, I think wanted to hold the alligator (the big one).

Her she is NOT excited that the snake is touching her - see the terror in her face!

Piper wasn't interested in holding the snake but thought she was REALLy cool to pet its head.

August

2010-09-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was just looking through my pictures and saw some fun pictures of things we did in August and was wondering why I had never put them on the blog - SLACKER! August was a bust of a month for me personally because Curtis was working TONS. Like TONS +!! I'm not a fan of not seeing him that but whatever - He's an allstar and closed 18 houses!! Hooray for Curtis - he really is a FABULOUS builder! I'm glad I have him to build the rest of our houses for us (yes houses - I guess I have to get used to the fact that we will move a lot). Anyway, we tried to keep ourselves busy and LUCKILY we have Julie and the kids close by to play with. They invited us to go with them to the zoo in Houston and it was a blast. I just love love the picture of Rex and Piper on the fence. Piper just adores Rex and had so much fun with him and all the kids. There was a three month old elephant that was just SOOOOO fun to see! He was SOOOO cute and I seriously could have watched him ALL day. He was just so playful and curious. Bailey loved him too and I think wanted to hold him. Not sure how that would work.

There was a fun little petting zoo - always a hit - and they even had brushes for the kids to use on the goats. As I'm sure you can guess, Piper was in HEAVEN! It's hard to see in the picture but she has a brush in her one hand and was just going to town on that poor goat. I think she would have brushed it bald if I would have let her. Luckily I tore her away for this picture with the black goat. Isn't he a cute goat. Bailey of course loved petting them too - she is totally obsessed with dogs and I think she thought they were just big dogs.
All in all we had such a fun trip. I DEFINATLY want to take them back this fall/winter when it's cooler. Even though it was fun, it would be SOOO much better if it weren't 100 + degrees outside. Thanks for the fun trip Gerratts!

The park

2010-08-28T07:18:00.001-07:00

Just thought grandparents might like to see Bailey (AKA: Babyzilla) walking. It's really funny!

New Pictures!

2010-08-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe living in an apartment is a good thing! As a result of being so bored, I have been able to keep up on the blog! Haha! Anyway, I've been taking lots of pictures of these cute girls and the fun we've been having just hangin out in our apartment since it's too stinkin' hot to go outside.

This morning I had to go to the bathroom durring breakfast and Bailey was not happy about not having food in her minute at every second so I asked Piper to feed her some oatmeal. This is what I came back to. Isn't she such a good big sister!

Bailey was NOT about so sit still for this picture!

Bailey thinks it's the GREATEST thing ever to bite the spoon when i'm feeding her. This time she got it and was very proud.

Piper and I have been doing fun "school" activities. We have been playing pretend school on tuesdays and thurdsays (not always consistently) and this was us experimenting with objects to see if they would sink or float. She LOVED this activity!

My Bailey - not so much a baby anymore.

Play Room

2010-08-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Ok ...So I'm house dreaming. I figure, I'm going to decide exactly how I want my next house to be so when the time comes we can just build it and not sit around hum hauing. I think, if we build a two story (which i'm still not sure about), I want to have a loft that will be a play room (like yours carole and Kimberly). The only thing I haven't been sure on is is I actually want it to be a 'loft' or just close it off to be its own room. Mess DIRVES ME CRAZY. and if its open, i can see how that might be disastrous.

So today I was deciding I need to build Bailey her own book shelf for her room (trying to make this little apt more homey). I thought it would look cute with her little chair my mom gave her and that way she could have her own books in her own room and not have to go through Piper everytime she wants to read a book. I figured I might as well build it since I could probably do it cheaper and cuter than buying and that way WHEN we move again if I need to toss it I can. Anyway blah blah, I was looking on knock off wood to see if she had a cute bookshelf pattern and I came across THIS!!!! Isn't it ADORABLE!!!!! I LOVE IT! I think it's from land of nod?? Anyway I love it, love the colors, love the wallpaper, love everything and have decided that this will be what our next playroom looks like! (well more than just the shelf of course but i'm going to base it on these colors etc! hooray) Now I just need to find that wall paper!

Food = Happy Bailey

2010-08-13T10:20:00.001-07:00

OH my gosh!! Bailey LOVES food! It is so funny! She will try ANYTHING and usually loves EVERYTHING! So this afternoon I fed Bailey a snack - pured carrots and apples - which she was satisfied with and went off to play after. I decided to sneek a couple of her little crackers. So I get the box out quietly and open the bag as quietly as possible which I thought was PRETTY quiet! All of a sudden Bailey comes tearing out of the living room with her mouth WIDE open. She KNEW! Somehow she knew exaxtly what I was getting into and she WANTED in on it!

My next house!

2010-08-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

This sign or at least quote WILL be in my next house!

As well as this

She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny what?

2010-08-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

No not yellow a no DEFIANTLY not a bikini, but YES YES to polka dots!!!

I went to Target yesterday to sadly buy hair dye. I know, it's a sad day when you go GREY! I have these pesky little grey hairs appearing every now and then at my part that makes me look a hundred times OLDER than Curtis - NOT cool! Anyway, so I broke down and stopped in to get some dye (it was on sale and I had a COUPON hooray!) and saw that their swim suits were on sale! BOTH girls need one too! Perfect timing. AND they even had matching suits in each's size! TOO CUTE! So we had to try them out today and show them off.

Side note: Bailey, it seems, for the last couple days had become VERY defiant! I mean like looks right at me and does exactly what I had said 'no' to two seconds ago!!! She is STUBBORN!!! So today she was obsessed with climbing up onto the chair and then off it. So I was hanging out in the water right by her, the chair was within arms reach, and she was doing this. Then all of a sudden she decides it would be cool to stand NOT holding onto ANYTHING - ON the chair! Danger Danger!! So I say, BAILEY NO NO! She smiles. I tell her again and that she needs to SIT DOWN or else I wont let her climb anymore. Now for all of you out there that think 'oh she's a baby, she doesn't understand' NOT true my friends! She knows EXACTLY what she is doing and what I am saying!!! So I proceed to tell her no and try to grab her and she moves back far enough in the chair that I can't reach her from the pool and SMILES at me!!!!!!! OH NO WAY SHE DID THAT!!! So I haul myself out of the pool and grab her, she cries, wails her arms about - I restrain her and she looks up at me and pouts. So I say 'are you done?' let her back down and she does it again in like 5 minutes! GRRRR!

Comparison

2010-08-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Per request, I have posted comparison pictures of the girls. Piper's on top at a year and Bailey on bottom at her year mark. What do you think?!?

Happy Birthday Bailey!

2010-08-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

Bailey turned one last Tuesday July 27, 2010! Hooray! We love her so much! She is the FUNNEST baby EVER and we have had SOOOO much fun with her this last year. Since we took the girls to the Children's museum, I've been wanting to get Bailey a tunnel for her birthday. I thought she would love crawling through it since she is such an active little baby. So after much research and finding some amazing deals... I got her a play tent, two actually, that are connected by a tunnel. AND, the best part in my opinion... BALLS. What kid doesn't LOVE playing in balls? I know I did when I was little, the more balls the better. In fact, you could never really get enough balls! Anyway, I was SURE she would just LOVE this entertainment system and set it up the night before her birthday and was SOOOOO excited. ....She was not. Don't you love this picture! At least one of my kids LOVED it! Bailey was not impressed.

I think she either thought the balls were going to get her OR she felt like she was going to be drownd by them. Not sure which but she would not enter this tent willingly - being the good mom that I am, I forced her in!

She ended up liking the other tent ok, probably because there weren't balls in it and crawled through the tunnel a couple times following Piper. Piper was really excited about the tents but I think she needed someone to play with to really get the true fun potential out of it. It's ok, I'm SURE we will have lots of fun with it in the future.

So back to Bailey's day... I let her open my mom's present early because she was wanting desperately to play on Piper's chair and of course being the typical big sister, Piper did not want to share. Bailey LOVED her new chair and climbed up and down from it pretty much all day. Here she is pretending to read this book. The rest of the morning we just played and hung out. Piper helped me make frosting for Bailey's birthday cake and then it was naptime. Hooray for me! Cake decorating time. I was SOOOOO SOOOO excited to make Bailey's birthday cake and couldn't WAIT to get started. And then I started... and it was HARD...and I COULDN'T get it to look good or the frosting to hold or... needless to say Bailey did not get a silo on her barn...She was lucky to get a barn. Anyway, in the end it turned out pretty cute and she really couldn't have cared less what it looked like as long as it tasted good.

Curtis got home "early" from work and we quick opened presents so we could rush off to chuck-e-cheese to celebrate Rex's birthday. Bailey really didn't know what to do with her presents so piper graciously helped her tear into them.

I need to post the picture from the day after Bailey's birthday of these two playing with these blocks! They loved them - Bailey ESPECIALLY loved to put them back in the box while piper sang the "clean-up" song.

Gamma GG sent this cute pillow pal and Bailey was ALL smiles! She LOVES to cuddle blankets and stuffed toys.

Celebrating at chuck -e-cheese!

Piper was in HEAVEN! She asked me ALL day when we could go to Chuck-e-cheese and the time was FINALLY HERE!!

Bailey eating her birthday cupcake. She didn't get too into it. She actually was a lot like Piper was not wanting to touch the frosting. At first she touched it, realized she didn't like the feel of the frosting, then sat there with her mouth open wanting Curtis to feed her. Once she had a taste and realized he wouldn't, she dug in a little.

Other news:

Bailey is officially a big girl and gets to drink WHOLE MILK! Wahoo - freedom (as of yesturday)! Although it's slightly sad too of course.

and...

Bailey can walk (as of july 20th)...at least a few steps at a time before getting SO excited she actually did it that she falls down

I'm OBSESSED!

2010-08-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

So I have been wanting to get a paper/vinyl cutter lately and talked to Kimberly today about what she has and got the name so I could do a little research on what would work for me ...and what I could afford:) Anyway she gave me the blogg address to a friend of hers and I found out that some blogg sites are GIVING AWAY the silhouette!!!! Like... Tidy mom, ucreate, dollar store crafts, sugar doodle, v and co (@vchristenson), shabby chic cottage, the idea room, craft gossip, homemade by jill, centsational girl, cupcake project, infarrently creative, a soft place. But one requirement is to blog about it so here I am blogging! I have desperately been trying to catch up on my scrapbooking - I won't tell you how far behind I am - and the other day I was scrapbooking with julie who has a cricket. Anyway, she let me use it to cut a couple things and it REALLY made a difference on my pages!!! It was AWESOME! The pages she did were amazing and I WISHED I had one to make fun pages BUT i could never afford or WANT to spend the money on the cartridges!! I mean, besides the machine which is already REALLY pricey, the cartridges are like $50 a piece ON SALE and you only get one or two fonts. So I have been hum hauing about it - wishing I was rich! haha. Well then I talked to Kimberly today about the Silhouette. It sounds NICE. You hook it up to the computer so you can use any FREE fonts you can download online! AND it cuts vinyl for all the projects I would LOVE LOVE to start. Oh when we have our own house again ...the possibilities would be endless. Anyway, I want one so I am desperatley blogging in order to give myself a one in a million chance of wining one FREE! Thanks Kimberly for the info - please bless i'm lucky this week!

More pictures

2010-07-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

So here are the rest of the pictures I wanted to post (at least most of them). This forth of July we decided to avoid the crowds and just do out own little fireworks show. Curtis bought a big box of sparklers and fire crackers and one HUGE box of fireWORKS to top off our evening. We spent the afternoon at Donald and Julies playing games and eating lots of good food. The kids were so cute! At the first sign of darkness they ran in and asked if it was time to do fireworks yet. They were all really excited. The right darkness came and we all headed out to watch the guys light them up! I'm not joking - one flew RIGHT at me and Piper on our little lawn chairs and I hot skip skidattled out of there so fast Piper didn't know what to think ( no I didn't leave her behind to face the firey dart - I took her with me of course) Anyway, poor Bailey was so tuckered out from all the previous fun, she missed out on all the fire displays.
Monday, the boys had off so we packed up and headed over to Holly Beach, Louisiana. It was hot and felt so good to get in the water. Piper and Bailey LOVED it and had a BLAST. I have one picture that I couldn't get on here but it's so cute of Bailey trying to sneak a bite of the carmeled marshmallows I made. She's such a little stinker - into everything and loving crawling around and investigating EVERYTHING . So fun! I love this picture of Emerson and Piper. We all were playing Bochy ball (not sure how to spell that one) and we look over to see this picture. It was funnier in real life - they just were in their own little world playing with a camera and baby powder. They totally looked like old women with their T-shirts on and sun hats - oh so cute. Lots of fun!

A couple weeks ago Julie and I took the kids to the Children's museum in Houston and we all had such a blast. They had this one section called kidtropolis where the kids could go pick a job, earn money, then go spend it. Anyway, Piper was a vet and was in heaven with all of the fun gadgets she got to use on the poor puppy that needed his shots and everything. She loved it and after she was done fixing up the doggy, she got to go spent the money she'd earned. Of course she decided to spend it at the grocery story and man was that FUN! She was SOOOOOOO in HEAVEN there. She just didn't know what to do first! You could just see the awe and excitement in her eyes! SHE got to do all the picking and choosing and then check herself out!?!?!?!? She just couldn't believe it. Well after she had done her grocery shopping and checked herself out, I told her it was time to go get something to eat. She was fine with that and started walking out of the store with her purchases. I stopped her and said she needed to put everything back. She said she didn't want to put everything back, she wanted to go fix it (she wanted to go make the mac and cheese she had "bought")to eat. She said I bought it with my money and I want to go eat it. I swear I almost cried - literally! I felt SOOOOOOO bad for her! It was NOT pretend to her and she had worked hard as a vet and did her shopping and now she wanted to go make her food and enjoy it! It took a LOT of convincing and bribing but after another 15 min. in the store we finally made it out. Oh so fun!

Finally by the end of our day we made it to the spot Bailey had been waiting for - the toddler floor!. They had the cutest little set up for little ones to play in - everything was soft. There were soft stairs and soft blocks and soft hills to climb and let me tell you Bailey was in HER heaven. Bailey is SOOOOO different than Piper was as a baby - the minute I set her down she was off exploring and loving EVERYTHING she tried. She's not afraid to climb things and if she falls she just tries again. It was so fun to see her exploring - I could have spent all day there watching her have fun!

Oh my gosh, is this post long enough! Sorry - I'll wrap it up! Wwent to an Astros game a couple weekends ago. It was fun but Piper really didn't get too into it like she did the hockey. Curtis and I didn't see much of the game cause we were tending to bored kids but parts of it they liked and it was fun to do something different. I want to go again minus the kiddos sometime:)

And lastly, Bailey is WALKING! Well sort of. We got out piper's litttle pushy thing and she's just been loving that. Then she got all in to holding my fingers and walking with me and then 2 days ago (the 20th) she took THREE steps without me!!!!!!!!!!! and then she did it agian yesturday that the splash park and AGAIN today when curtis got home! AHHH! She's not a baby anymore!

We made it!

2010-07-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

So we finally made it to Texas! Actually almost a MONTH ago but I haven't had internet and then when I got it all figured out and hooked up we found out our computer was filled with virus' and trojans (spelling??). But I just got it back from the shop and have been so excited to post pictures!

The drive out wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - the girls really did well and we had help from my dad which made everything go alot smoother. We took our time and ate lots of good food and got to swim in hotel pools which the girls loved! Bailey LOVED to get out of her carseat and just wanted to move her little body. She loved having grandpa there to show off to and babble to!

Of course, so did Piper! Grandpa is her hero still! She had so much fun playing with him and is still talking about grandpa driving the truck.

Beaumont is probably the ugliest, most boring drab city on earth so we've had to be a little bit creative in finding things to do. SO, Piper and I made good use of our moving box and made a house for her and her "dogs" and baby. (Dogs is in "s because she has an adorable stuffed animal horse that she calls her dog cassey and her other stuffed dog is Ramey after our old neighbor's dogs - She knows the horse is actually a horse but insists it is a dog now since she has no other actual stuffed dog to name Cassey) She loves it and had fun making pictures to go on her walls and a table for her and her little family to eat off of. I think she spent most of the day we made it in there eating her lunch and drawing and waving to me. She wanted me to get in with her... haha!

We are SUPER lucky to have a pool at our apartment complex and have spent quite a bit of time there. The girls are just little fish and can't get enough! I love that it has a kiddy section for Bailey to crawl around in (she loves it too!) It gets a little boring for her to float around in her little tube so it's just wonderful to let her crawl around and get her energy out.

I think it was the first or second week we were here, we were over at Donald and Julie's and the kids were playing in the back yard when we heard Piper SCREAMING. Kennedy ran her in and told us she had stepped in a fire ant pile. OUCH! I guess she stood on it and, of course, the ants attacked and she didn't know what to do so she just stood there screaming! Poor thing didn't even try to get them off so they just kept biting. That is SO painful!!! So anyway this is the after math of that. I don't know how we ever managed to not have this happen in SC - guess we were lucky. Anyway, she's obviously not allergic so it wasn't a big deal - just a lot of ichy blisters. I immediatly washed off the bites and we put on aloe with lidocaine and I told her NOT to scratch or it would make it tons worse and she LISTENED!!! She NEVER scratched them! She would just come to me when they hurt and ask to spray them with anti -itch stuff. I was SOOOOO impressed - I can't help but scratch the HECK out of them when I get just one! Anyway she's our little toughy.

I have LOTS more pictures I wanted to post but I guess it's too many to do in one post so I'll put up some more soon.

Signing off

2010-06-15T20:50:00.001-07:00

I realize I haven't blogged since ... APRIL!!! Sad I know! Life got crazy and we're moving :( Anyway, I am JUST about to disconnect the 'ol computer and thought I'd say so long until Texas.

Bailey's First...

2010-04-06T11:40:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to add to the last post, Bailey got her first tooth today! Her bottom front tooth broke through! She has been really good too- so I had no idea she was teething! She has been REALLY poopy lately, like at LEAST 4 BLOW OUTS a day and a friend came over on Easter and said her boys were like that when they were teething. I didn't think too much of it since Bailey had NO other symptoms of teething but low and behold a tooth popped out today. Congrats Bailey! She's almost 8 1/2 months - took a while. (Piper was 3 months when she got her bottom two)

Easter Dresses

2010-04-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

Of course I had to post Easter dress pictures! Bailey's dress was so puffy she looked like one big flower! Piper absolutely LOVES her Easter dress and couldn't wait to put it on. Thanks mom and dad (grandmommy and daddy!)

Flowertown Festival

2010-04-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Sadly, No- I have not found my camera! I took these on my old school camera and to my amazement they can put regular film pictures on a disc at the store! Hooray!

A couple weekends ago was the Summerville Flowertown Festival and we decided to check it out all the action. Sadly we weren't able to go until afternoon and it was PACKED. I was scared Piper was going to get mowed over by all the people! Hence her sitting on her daddy's shoulders. Anyway, we had fun walking around and people watching - we didn't even get to the crafts - that's how packed it was! We could only stay a couple hours and it took more than a half hour to get to the start of the crafts- we figured it would take forever to walk through it and we didn't want to risk getting stuck (since Curtis had a baptism he needed to be at) so we walked back to the rides and let Piper pick one ride she wanted to go on (again because the lines were HORRIFIC). Naturally she chose the least threatening of all the rides - the carousel. That way one of us could go with her. She of course loved it and is still talking about when she rode the zebra.

Thought I'd add the picture of Bailey's first bike ride in the bike seat. For some reason she's not a fan of the trailer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

GREEN GREEN EVERYWHERE!!! We have been having SUCH a fun St. Patrick's day! I felt a little guilty for not even putting Piper in green last year (or myself and consequently got pinched by Carole!) so I decided to have a little fun with it this year. Curtis told me every year his mom would lay a trail of leprechaun tracks for them to follow to find their breakfast - LuckyCharms, and dyed their milk green! What fun! Good job MaryANN! So I adopted the tradition while taking it one step further by dying the toilet water green! Ha!Ha! Silly In know! Piper thought it was so fun and silly. When she got to her breakfast she had a curly green straw too - what fun! I had to work at the Y today so I brought a pot of "gold" (chocolate coins) with a rainbow coming out of it for the kids to enjoy. Piper thought it was funny that the leprechaun had stopped by there too and dropped some of his gold. She soon found out he had played another trick on us and the gold was chocolate! So fun! We made shinkydink shamrock necklaces with the kids and just have really enjoyed our day. Sadly I have NO pictures:( I know - it's a tragedy! but I have LOST my camera - I can't find it ANYWHERE!!! Last I remember seeing it was after Piper's first ballett class and I was uploading the pictures for the blog. Curtis thinks Piper hid it somewhere - hopefully we find it soon! Naps are in progress right now. I really want to make a leprechaun trap after naps but we'll see if there's time. We has a ROUGH night last night! The only one the slept was Piper. Curtis found out he has a double ear infection and a sinus infection and Bailey has a double ear infection - I think I have one too but not sure what to do! It's probably in my head - anyway, that's all in our neck of the woods. Hope you're all having a very green and tricky St. Patrick's day!

2010-03-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

Ballet

2010-03-04T11:08:00.001-08:00

I have just been loving working at the Y. Not only has it given ME something to do and a way to earn a LITTLE bit of extra cash, but it has just been awesome for Piper. She has such a great opportunity to socialize every week and make new friends while "we're" working. She has gotten SO much better at saying hi to people and learning to be polite to my co-workers and the other kids - she's really coming out of her shell which is just wonderful! (If you know Piper, you know she DOES NOT like to be touched by someone she doesn't know, talked to or certainly not left alone with other people! She has ALWAYS wanted me right there holding her! ) Anyway, the BIGGEST perk to me working at the Y has been the great classes and camps. I have been able to work out in class settings with friends and have been able to get my runs in while letting the kids play in the child watch and Curtis has been able to do some of his P.T. on their equipment. Recently, the Y opened a ballet class for the little ones so I signed Piper up (and since I work there, It was SUPER cheep!). Curtis and I BOTH were worried she wouldn't like it since I wouldn't be able to hold her hand the whole time, but we did it anyway. Well, today was her first day! We talked all about it this morning and she got really excited to get her outfit on, especially her tights "like mommy wears". I think she was mostly excited because I was jumping around the house SO excited myself! I set her up on the bathroom counter and put her hair up in a bun just like Ballerinas and she #1 allowed it and #2 LOVED it. She loved having it hair sprayed up and posed so beautifully for me before we left. When we got to the gym, she saw all of the other little ballerina's standing around waiting and she told all of my co-workers she was going to dance - too cute! Then the time came for them to enter the dance room ... alone...without there mommies...

Piper cried! At least when she finally realized I WASN'T right behind her. But Lisa (the instructor/co-worker - so piper knows her really well) said it was fine and just leave her... so I did... and ... SHE DID GREAT!!!!!

She LOVED every minute of it!!! I stuck around and watched, along with all of the other moms, peeking in every so often hoping she wouldn't see me and she did great. I went for a run while they did there thing then came back to watch the last 10 minutes and Piper was actually dancing and running around. I was SOOOOO glad she wasn't one of the kids with their face pressed up against the glass waiting for their moms!

The last little bit they turned the music on for the girls to free dance and Piper was SOOO cute shaking her little bootay like Emily taught her to.

Anyway, we had the BEST time EVER and Piper said she wanted to do it again after her nap - haha. I have the cutest video of her dancing that- if I can figure out how to put on here - i'll add later.

Couponing

2010-03-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

So I have been attempting "couponing" for about the last year here in S. Carolina because a.)there are some AWESOME grocery deals to be getting b.) "everybody's doing it (that's not really why but it's is the truth - EVERYBODY coupons here which can present a problem at times) and of course c.) to save money. Well last weekend I forced Curtis into doing my Publix run with me so that we could buy everything in 2 transactions (I had an episode last time I tried doing 2 transactions even though it was lagit. so I begged Curtis to do it with me so I wouldn't get embarrassed) and this is our results. Thanks to my friend, the couponing queen, and her extra coupons we got all of this for less than $25!! (i think it came to $22.10!!!)I did it in 4 transactions;two of the transactions we only paid 10cents!!!! - it was AWESOME!!!! I hope this made curtis want to coupon hunt for me when he passes the recycling bins on his way to work:) Anyway, here's the rundown of what I got...

17 bags frozen veggies

4 canisters of bread crumbs (chicken parmasean here I come!)

1 box nutrasweet (didn't have a coupon for but Curtis needed)

1 gallon of milk (also didn't have a coupon for)

1 tub butter

2 starkist tuna pouches

1 can progresso soup

2 canisters pillsbury grands

1 canister cinn. rolls

12 cans of corn

10 cans diced tomatoes

3 BIG cans hunts tomatoes

3 32 oz chicken broth

14 jars of Ragu

10 bag of knorr rice

2 boxes brownies

3 canisters of Pam

2 8oz chuncks of cheese

2010-02-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the blogg. Does anyone know how to fix this????? Tiff, I should have just had you do this again. I thought for sure I could figure it out but nope! Sad - I know.

New Pictures

2010-02-20T18:14:00.000-08:00

Just a little update on the girls... this is Bailey's new found way of smiling - mouth open as wide as she can get it, then she chirps like a bird and laughs. I have a picture of Piper in this dress sitting on the grass in Burley at Brent's wedding so I wanted to get one of Bailey in it but our grass is NASTY brown so her picture is inside. I'll have to find Piper's picture and post a comparison.

We decided to take the girls on a bike ride the other night. It was freezing out! So the got bundled up with about 10 blankets on them. Curtis thought I was CRAZY but hey, they were warm!

Playing blocks! (notice Piper's shirt - she wanted to put in on "all myself" - It's backwards) Anyway I love this picture because EVERYONE is playing - even Bailey! Too cute. Had to put this next picture of bailey up - those CHEEKS!! I'm surprised she can hold her head up! haha!

I'm sure Bailey will not appreciate this picture someday but I just couldn't resist. the cheeks, the lips, the pudginess!

Anyway, all is well in here. The weather is starting to warm up and we're lovin' life!

Snow Update

2010-02-13T05:23:00.000-08:00

We woke up with now power and it was a little cold inside but man is it BEAUTIFUL outside!!! Powers back and we're getting ready to go PLAY!

Once There Was a Snowman!

2010-02-12T16:34:00.001-08:00

Yup! Can you believe it - we're getting SNOW!!!! I laughed out loud when the news said schools were letting kids out early for the upcoming "snow storm". It was 40 something out and overcast but NOT snow weather. Come on! South Carolina - snow?!? Curtis and I went to Target for something and we saw some friends and we all made fun of how they said we were getting snow - hah! By the time we got home it had been raining for awhile but still I scoffed at the idea. We'd been home about 15 minutes and I called Julie to ask a questions - then asked what they were up to - she said a snow ball fight... I looked outside and we had snow!!! Sorry to doubt you weatherman!

Piper was SO cute building her snowman! She would roll her ball once or twice then say - "oh, I'm so thirsty! That's hard work" Too cute!

It was SO fun fun getting hot chocolate ready for the snowman builders and LOVED getting so warm Piper's rosey red cheeks when they came in.

Updated photo of the snow - and it's still coming!

Catch up #1

2010-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

I am SOOOO behind on blogging!! So here is my first attempt at catch-up. Bailey just turned 6 MONTHS! Crazy how fast it goes. She is the SUPER happiest baby ever and is still always smiling. She still needs a little help sitting up but can go for probably 5 minutes by herself then she usually gets excited about something and kicks which makes her fall over. This is one of my favorite outfits. It has a strawberry bib I hadn't yet put on for the picture and the socks are adorable strawberries - thanks mom.

On January 16th I ran my first half marathon. It was quite the accomplishment. I ran it with some friends in the ward and it really was a ball - I'm glad I did it. However... I probably will never do this specific run ever again. I just wasn't impressed with the route. They had you run one way then turn around and run back - then run a different direction and turn around and run back... in my opinion - not cool! The course was rough too, kind of pot holey and they didn't even have bottled water at the end!!!!!! In their defense, it was the first half marathon event for N. Charleston so maybe next year will be better. Anyway, it was great fun - I'm glad I did it and hey I lost 5 lbs in the process! (I was hoping for 20 but 5 's better than nothin!)

Bailey and Piper are the bestest of friends and Piper really loves to play with her little sister. It's been so fun. Here Piper is cooking for me and helping keep Bailey preoccupied with a toy. Such a good big sister.

Anyway, there will be more to come shortly - stay tuned for catch up #2!

Grandma and pa Gerratt visit

2010-01-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

I put these pictures up FOREVER ago and then saved it and forgot to finish this post - sad I know! I have SO much more new stuff to put on - how will I ever catch up. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa Gerratt visited a couple of weeks ago and we got to go to the Aquarium downtown with them. Here are some photos. Piper LOVED them and the aquarium. It was really cold out and I really don't know what goes on in her little head but while we were walking to the aquarium I turned around to see Grandpa G. carrying Piper!! Now, if you know Piper that DOES NOT happen often. She NEVER goes to people or LETS them hold her or even touch her for that matter! But I guess Grandpa G has that charm about him. Anyway, here are Rex and Piper with the alligators.

Piper thought EVERYTHING was SO cool. Here her and Emerson are checking out this huge tank.

Peek - A - Boo! Don't you LOVE these big eyes peeking out!

We had SUCH a great time with the Gerratts and can't wait to see EVERONE soon! (hopefully for the reunion!!)

2010-01-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

How can this little thing...Do THIS????? (The Picture DOES NOT do justic to what was ACTUALLY there!!!)

I don't know my friends but she can...she did... AND without getting ANY on the jumparoo!!

(I've been working on it for an hour... still not out... any suggestions???)

Tis the Season

2009-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

'Tis the Season to be JOLLY! and we sure have been jolly around here! I just LOVE LOVE the Christmas season (who doesn't!) and we've been having a great time whipping out all of our decorations. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed to Lowes to pick our our Christmas tree. Piper had been sick all weekend but we managed to get that in so we could decorate it on Monday for Family Home Evening. It was a blast! It's so fun to get out the ornaments and take a stroll down memory lane with each ornament. I always quiz Curtis on where we got each one (since most of them came from our honey moon it isn't too hard!) Piper mostly like the Christmas music we had playing and busied herself by dancing her little heart out. She LOVES Jinggle bells. Of course after we decorated it was picture time. I WISH I was a photographer! this is the best I got. And to finish off we had homemade cinnamon rolls - yum! Actually I think Pilsbury makes them better:) Anyway it was so fun and we're still having fun preping for big festivities!

I figured I'd add some recent pictures of Bailey while everything was working for me (computer wise) So here she is...

She is the HAPPIEST baby I've ever seen! REALLY! and totally SOCIAL - not like anyone else in this family! She talks to everyone and smiles at everything! She has an ear infection right now and last night she was getting fussy while Curtis was holding her but she was trying to smile through the cries that were coming on! It was so cute and so sad.

So I always put her in her bouncer when we eat dinner - so she can be included- and the other night this is what she did.

"hey guys - what's for dinner?"

Today Piper and I decided to start BAKING! HOORAY! I love ALL the yummy Christmas treats everyone makes (looks like I won't be loosing any of that weight too soon - Who cares though right! You just CAN'T pass up Christmas treats! I'll start after Christmas...haha famous last words right!) Anyway, we made the dough for mom and gramma's famous icebox cookies! oh DIVINE! Bailey woke half way though and I didn't want to stop so she got strapped on to help. Piper took this picture - good job Piper.

Bailey is so excited for the delightful treats - little does she know she can't eat them yet

I ran to get the camera and this is what I came back to. She TOTALLY got caught with her hand in the cookie DOUGH!

Well, hope y'all are having just as much fun getting ready for Christmas! We're so greatful to have such good friends and family - we love you!

Bailey

2009-11-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd update the blog with some new pictures of Bailey. Here she is sucking her thumb. It's so cute! She sucks her left thumb and grabs the back of her head with her other hand. I took this one today. Don't mind the messy room - Piper and I had to work today (at the Y) and I didn't have time to make my bed:( Anyway Piper wanted to hold her "baby sister". She LOVES her sister so much and Bailey LOVES her big sister soooo much. It's fun to see them interact. Piper can really get Bailey to laugh!

This is Bailey in her SUPER cute dress! I LOVE THIS DRESS!! Piper grew out of it so fast! So i'm SOOO excited to get to use it with Bailey. Isn't she SUPER cute!!! Loving the eyes!

Too fun. She got wear her cute dress shoping on saturday. She was the cutes baby at the mall!

Had to get a picture with the shoes! Thanks Carole!

2009-10-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

We took Piper mini putting for Labor day. I thought this picture was supper precious. She had such a blast and we had so much fun doing something different. Curtis and I haven't gone mini putting in FOREVER!! We were able to go with our friends which made it even more fun for us AND Piper! Piper just LOVES her friend Emily and of course had a ball getting to play all day with her. Swiming with Dad

A very chill baby

my attempt at a home photo shoot - didn't go so well but I still caught her super cuteness

Sisters

Best friends

2009-08-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to put up new pictures of the girls for a long time now but every time I try, the pictures take FOREVER to upload so I give up. Turns out these saved from my last attempt so HOORAY! Piper is just LOVEING having a sister and LOVES Bailey SO much. She loves to play mommy and helps out tons with changing diapers and fetching burp rags. Crying doesn't ever seem to bother her and usually when Bailey starts to cry Piper will start singing her the rock-a-by song. Story time with daddy is a favorite. Piper is in HEAVEn - not so sure about Bailey! Piper doesn't care about the screaming though, she thinks this is the BEST!

I kept forgetting to put these pictures up of Bailey's blessing day. Bailey did great, although I was SURE she would scream through the whole thing (she was hungry). She didn't make a peep though and daddy gave a great blessing. Piper was just done by this point and was sick of the camera. Don't you love the pout and the folded arms. What a personality!

2009-08-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

So I know I totally wrote a NOVEL! I just did that so I could print it and put it in my journal - (kill two birds with one stone) so don't read it all just enjoy the pictures!

Everything went great with Bailey's delivery. We decided to get induced on monday (my due date was the thursday before) which I was NOT excited about! I kept hoping I would just go into labor on my own over the weekend but it didn't happen. So we went to the hospital at 7 am on monday and they started the petocin at 8:30am. At lunch time they broke my water which made contractions TOTALLY SUCK! But I was insistant on holding out on getting the epidural because I was so scared it would hurt like the last one. So I waited and Curtis and the nurse thought I was CRAZY (and I was). I opted for the IV drugs which did absolutely NOTHING!!!!!! NOT ONE THING. Everyone said it takes the edge off or it makes you not care about the pain - yeah right! I sure as heck didn't 'not care' about the pain and it took no edge off - they killed. At one point Curtis grabbed my hand to try and keep me from pulling my hair out litterally. Finally the nurse asked what my big problem was with the epidural and i told her i didn't want it to hurt. Ha! She was probably laughing inside thinking 'HELLO you already hurt!' Anyway she offered to have the anesthesiologist come in and talk to me about it and i agreed. He was a supper nice, crazy guy. He has Curtis' sence of humor. He told me the name for what had happened to me last time I had an epidural and said he couldn't promise it wouldn't happen again. By that point I was DESPERATE to stop the pain so I gave him the OK. I just could NOT stop shaking and was SOOOOO worried it would hinder him and finally was able to suck it up and hold still just long enough for him to put it in. It went great! I won't say it didn't hurt but it was TONS better than last time. When he was all done he asked if i had had the shots of pain this time and I told him no. He was like - huh, I thought you'd have them again. I'm thinkin' well thanks for telling me! ( I guess really i'm glad he didn't or I wouldn't have gone through with it) So last time i had an epidural it hurt like HECK but it worked almost instantly. This time - that was not the case. It didn't hurt as bad but it took a good 45 min to an hour to kick in. Again, I thought i was going to die waiting. I think the anesthesiologist was even stumped at why it was taking so long. At one point I think he thought I might be needing to push before it would kick in which I was soooooo going to be bugged about - I kept praying it would kick in before I had to push. I just CANNOT imagine pushing through that and feeling EVERYTHING - YUCK!!!!!! FINALLY it did kick in and I got a good hour nap before it was time to deliver. It was the BEST rest I have EVER gotten. I was SO happy. Anyway, just before 5 a nurse came in to check out everything ( I had been at a 10 but they were just having me wait till the doc got done with work and do the whole rest and decend thing) She had me push twice to see where it got the baby to. When she was done she said 'looks like you'll be having a baby in 15 min.' Curtis and I both were like YEAH RIGHT! She obviously does not know how long i pushed last time (3 HOURS) but sure enough, the doctor came in - I pushed 3 times, a grand total of 4 min35sec and Bailey was out! I could feel the pressure leave my stomach! It felt SO good! So that's Bailey's birth story. She was born at 5pm on Monday July 27,2009. Weighed 8lbs 2 oz and 20 in long. dark brown hair like her sister . She came out rooting (not like her sister who wanted nothing to do with nursing) and nursed like a pro from the begining.

Piper got a new baby too. She LOVES Bailey AND her new doll. She thought it was so fun that her doll laughs, crys and makes sucking noises on her bottle.

I felt a TON better after this delivery than I did with Pipers

Here we are at home with the beautiful flowers Curtis' parents sent.

Piper helping me hold her new baby sister.

Piper is the BEST big sister ever! She loves her new baby sister and is so protective of her. I just love how sweet she is with her and am SO glad she accepts having a new body in the house!

Bailey Jane

2009-08-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long to get pictures up. There are more to come but this is all I had patience for this time around (my comp. is slow). Anyway, Bailey was born July 27th at 5 pm and weighed 8lbs 2 oz. 20 in long. She's healthy and has been SO much fun! Piper just ADORES her and has been SO good. I'll update you on more later.

Curtis' Surgery

2009-06-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

So on Wed Curtis had his ACL surgery. Here he is goining in - happy. And here he is after - not so happy. Poor guy threw up all night and was not feeling good - how could you I guess! Anyway, Curtis has been such a trooper and is always so happy - He's such a good example to me and Piper. He is SO set on getting his knee back in shape fast and is doing good on his therapy (relatively - there hasn't been much yet just because he JUST had the surgery but I heard him in there today really trying hard to do the few excercises they have given him. It's really amazing what muscles you loose. For example... the quad stops working because of the nerve damage and you have to re-teach it to listen when you want to use it. It was amazing to see at the doctors. When he first said to lift his leg Curtis COULD NOT no matter how hard he tried and his leg would do little spasms but after a couple tries in therapy, with the coach guiding him, he was able to get it up by himself. Good job Curtis!) Anyway, the day after surgery Curtis was bound and determined to walk - so there's my cripple hobbling down the street at 7:30Am thursday morning. It was funny - We decided that the nerve block hadn't worn off yet. He hasn't really done that again. It will all come back at it's own pace but i'm proud of him for being so dedicated and not being a big weenie. He really has been taking care of himself and has such a good attitude! Hope you feel better soon dear!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great Memorial Day weekend camping in N. Carolina. We thought it would be fun to take Piper out to give it a try and it was. She loved it. She got to play on the "beach" all day with the other kids (which she though was heaven), ride a paddle boat with her dad, eat smores (actually she didn't like them!), cook by the fire, and sleep in a tent. She's STILL talking about sleeping in a tent. Curtis and I had fun although I think Curtis liked it a little more than I did - I think I bring bad weather with me when I camp. I have yet to have a good weather camping experience (minus NV). Last time we went in UT there was snow on the ground and I didn't sleep a wink because of the cold. This time it rained the whole weekend! So we were pretty wet. I was done with it by monday and ready for my dry bed at home! Anyway we had lots of fun and we're glad we got to go! Here's a pic of Curtis going down sliding rock. The water was FEEZING!!! He did it a couple times and loved it. I tried it once but once I saw the picture Curtis took of me (in my swim suit all fat and pregnant) I decided I would put my shirt back on and never put a swim suit on for the rest of my LIFE! It was fun though and I'm glad I did it - don't think the little baby liked it too much, I think the cold got all the way to her!

Piper and her fun Dino camping chair.

Helping dad with the fire.

A busy April

2009-05-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm just realizing how busy a month April has been!! There has been so much going on in the fam!! New baby Wayatt was born - hooray! We can't wait to see him (who knows when though:( John graduated - congratulations John! We have a lot picked out for you next door. And lots of birthdays- Piper's and Curtis'!! Happy birthday! Curtis' birthday was thursday so we got to have presents and cake AGAIN! How fun! Piper was about jumping out of her skin when she saw the presents for daddy. I kindda felt bad that what he opened was so boring to her. Oh well, she benefited from her present to dad. Piper got Curtis a family set of camping chairs for our upcoming camping trip. She LOVES her green dragon? chair and can't WAIT to try it out at the camp site.

Saturday we decided to enjoy the awesome weather at the beach. It was Way fun but WAY windy. Piper loved it though! Curtis and I decided on a new hobby we need to take up - wind surfing! It looked SOOOOOOOOOOO fun! So we'll have to see about getting into that! Here's a picture of my LOVELY belly. I know - i'm a COW ! This is the only picture that will ever be posted of me pregnant for the rest of this pregnancy and probably any other for that matter but I had to show off my new swim suit! I NEVER thought in a million years i would buy a maturnity swim suit because HELLO I would NEVER put on a swim suit while pregnant BUT... The timing didn't work out quite right with this pregnacy so I HAD to get one if to survive the upcoming summer. Luckily I found one! Let me tell you I was worried for a while there - the suits I was finding were pretty rough! Anyway, that's all the fun we've been up to. Happy April!

Happy Birthday Piper!

2009-04-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last thursday was Pipers 2nd B-day and we had so much fun celebrating all weekend!! Piper's favorit present was the tea set Julie and Donald and the kids gave her so Thursday morning we had Piper's little friend, Emily, over for a tea party. I made Mini cupcakes (which they both could have cared less about - that's ok Carole and I ate them all!) and they had lemonade in there little tea pot. Piper and Emily both LOVED pouring each other a cup. Piper hasn't quite figured out that when the cup is full you stop pouring - so our patio was pretty sticky! They had a blast though - Thanks Emily for playing with us!Dad Brought home balloons for Piper which she LOVED! She's obsessed with balloons and that was a present in itself for her! After dinner we let Piper open our presents and it was so fun to see her get in to opening them. She got a little keyboard which she jammed to all night, some butterflies and a net for the bath (needless to say she insisted on a bath that night!), and a lawn mower that blows bubbles. We has so much fun! Just like last year, Piper could have cared less about her cake. She loved blowing out the candle but was SOOOO not interested in eating it! Crazy child!!

Then we got to celebrate again on saturday with Piper's friends at the park! We had pizza and cake and tond of fun playing in the water!
Piper LOVES "swimming" this year and just couldn't get enough of the "sprinkler".

What's New

2009-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ok So my pictures are out of order but I stink at blogging and cant get them to move around anymore! So sorry. Today was the big day... Precious Piper had her first out-patient surgery. She got her ear tubes put in this morning. This is her on the way to the office. She was in SUCH a good mood (especially since we had to get up at the Bu**-crack of dawn (in curtis' words) ). I felt so bad taking her in when she had such a HUGE smile on her face. But in the end she only cried a TINY bit. Just when they took her away from me. The procedure took literally 10 min. and then they let me back to hold her 'till she woke up - which was only a couple minutes. The anestesiologis said she would not be a happy camper when she woke up but she was - she was SOOOO happy and didn't even think about sniffling. She was such a big girl!! So hopefully we're done with ear infections.

K, yesturday we took Piper on a bike ride and she was so excited! Here she is with her helmet on.

After our bike ride, Curtis decided he needed to go on a little bike ride of his own - just incase he sells the motorcycle (one last ride type thing). He took it around the neighborhood and Piper was so sad that daddy left so I told her Daddy would give her a ride when he got back and sure enough he did. She LOVED it!!! It was SOOOOO cute to watch. Curtis is already planning what bike her wants to get her so they can ride together!

So Curtis is so my handsome prince. He surprised me this weekend with tickets to the Family Cup Circle (tennis tournament). Donald and Julie watched Piper and we had such a fun day date! I loved it. First we saw a doubles match and then we stayed for part of the singles semi-finals. The singles was SOOOO cool and SOOOO fast! It was incredible!

Here's my little dancing star LOVEING watching dancing with the stars with her daddy. (He wasn't so keen on the choice of shows but Piper and I convinced him it was a good choice!) I wated to get a candid picture of her but she kept smiling! But when the camera was down she was SOOOOO intense watching them dance - it was too cute!

Happy Easter

2009-04-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

Happy late Easter to everyone. Here are a couple pictures that i could get uploaded (it's taking FOREVER to upload again!!) I'll add more later (with more compentarty!)

Trip to the Beach!

2009-03-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

So Piper and I had a way fun adventure today! We kicked off the Summer (spring) with our first trip to the beach - TOTALLY unplanned. The dr. that I'm going to is way down in Mt. Pleasant (close to the beach!!) and I had an apt today... SOOO Piper and I decided to go the beach on a whim! It was supposed to be nasty and rainy today but so far it's been great - cloudy but still great. It was so fun and so spontaneous! We didn't have ANYTHING beachy with us - no sunscreen, towels, Swim diapers, extra clothes - NOTHING! AND It was so great that way - I didn't have ANYTHING to carry!!!!!!! We had such a blast. First Piper wouldn't take her shoes off to play/walk in the sand but after I started exfoliating my feet she gave in. We played in the sand for a couple minuted and then I convinced her to go get our feet wet. On our way to the water we came across the GREATEST "BUBBLES". Piper LOVED them. She ran around stomping on them and screaming "bubbles bubbles". I told her we should get our feet wet and she willingly followed but when the water touched her feet I thought she was going to have a heart attack. Her face was priceless. The water was cold and she did not like it! So we played in the bubbles some more. THEN we saw so way cool beach birds (NOT seagulls although they were there too) and Piper thought it was fun to chase them saying "come on - come on". Join in the fun you silly birds! It was great! My non-daredevil of a child soon became the biggest dare devil EVER and just about chased the dang bird into the ocean - She got over the cold thing REALLY fast and splashed away in the foamy water. She thought it was fun to run out in the water and then run as fast as she could away from the waves when they came. Here she is running from them and pouncing on some "bubbles" along the way. Yeah, she started with all of her clothes on - then the pants came off - then the diaper- and by the end i HAD to take that wet shirt off. Luckily I had a sweatshirt and extra diaper in the car for the ride home. Anyway we had so much fun! She keeps saying "beach - fun". Can't wait to take her agian!

Ultra Sound

2009-02-26T17:54:00.000-08:00

So... I FINALLY had my ultrasound today. Sorry no pictures - I don't have a scanner. But they were really cool - we got some of the baby in 3D!!! Way Cool. So we OF COURSE decided to find out what we're haveing and - are you ready - it's a GIRL! WHAWHOOOOOOOO! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited! Piper is going to have a little sister! She is going to have so much fun! And I don't have to buy new bedding - I just LOVE Piper's crib stuff and I can't EVER get enough of pink! So yeah! I think Curtis is excited too. He really wanted a boy but he's excited for another daddy's girl. I told him I would root for a boy next time - I just REALLY wanted a girl this time. Anyway, that's the big news of the month.

I a Big Girl Now!

2009-02-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

Piper just got some super cute Big Sister shirts from our bestest of friends! She loves them and thought she was so cool today in her big sister shirt. I wanted to get apicture of her pointing at the big sister writing and have her smiling at the same time but this is all I could get. But she was way excited! Thanks Tiff for the super cute shirts! I Love the Valentine's boxes too! they are just adorable! You are so crafty! Thank you Thank you!
This evening Curtis had a meeting for church so Piper and I decided to play uno attack together. She LOVED pushing the button. And thought it was even cooler when it threw cards out at her.

guess what!

2009-02-05T12:54:00.001-08:00

So you'll never believe what Piper did... I need to preface this story with telling you that I have been thinking we need to start potty training Piper. I was going to wait until AT LEAST 2 until the past events started happening which made me rethink that decision. She has been taking her diapers off recently and staying eeewwwwyyyyy, yuck, icky etc. Well the other day I was cleaning the kitchen and she came in, threw a diaper in the garbage and started to walk away. At first I thought it was a clean diaper that she finds around - puts on her dolly - then thinks their dirty and throws away. not this time. I looked down and saw she had taken her pants off (something she'd never really done before) and then taken her diaper off. Nothin' but bare bunns. So I think - I'll go buy a potty. Well I don't. SO Here's what happens today. I put Piper down for her usual nap. She doesn't go to bed and instead talks (happens occasionally - but I still make her have quiet time). Well then I start hearing EEEwwwyyyy, Yuck, Poop, icky poop - crying. SO I go in there to see her diaperless standing in the corner of her crib holding her blanket for dear life pointing at two adult size poops in the middle of her bed. Fun! I thought for a sec to take a picture of the sight but then decided there are just some things you don't take pictures of - poop is one of them. So Piper has since had a bath and now we are going to the store to buy a potty.

Birthday Fun!

2009-02-03T07:26:00.001-08:00

Yesturday was my big 26 Birthday! We had a lot of fun. Piper was such a good little girl all day and was so fun to be around. Piper decided that her diapers are all icky, including the ones she wears, so I decided to go get a potty for her. Curtis called to see if we wanted to get some lunch so we met him at target and had a yummy hot dog before potty shopping. Piper loves the specific target that we went to yesturday because it has big red balls outside of it. Here she is sitting on one of them. Curtis got off work right at 5 ( or at least REALLY close to it) and piled us all in the car to go to Longhorn steak house. It was SOOOOOO good. I had the best steak of my entire life and piper loved her mashed potatoes! Then it was CAKE time! Piper was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about cake!!!!!! She was practically jumping up and down for it. She helped me blow out my "candle" (match -we ran out of candles) and was even better at helping me eat my cake. It was the BEST cake ever - white with raspberry filling!

Piper thought the bow on the present from grandmommy and daddy was the coolest thing ever and loved helping me open the box. I got some new scrapbooking stuff that I am way excited to try out. I can't wait. Piper and I are going to set up a little craft table today or tomorrow and try it all out. Thanks mom and dad!

Dan and MaryAnn sent a fun fun game we cant wait to try out! Piper LOVES cards and thinks she's such a big girl when we let her sit at the table with us (when we're playing games with Donald and Julie) with her own deck. I can't wait to try out the chalk too - thanks MaryAnn!

Thanks everyone for such a wonderful birthday and for thinking of me!

K - this picture is from this morning. We were eating breakfast and Piper thought it would be so funny to put her feet up. It was pretty cute and she got a kick out of it. Too cute!

Grateful

2009-01-29T11:05:00.001-08:00

Today I am grateful for my carpet. I LOVE it! It is clean and soft and squishy. It's the perfect color and I just LOVE it. The end.

Genius!

2009-01-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

Yes I am a "genius" today. Piper and I were out sort of late in the afternoon today and she was WAY over ready for a nap. So I get home and go through the 'get ready for bed' routine, tell her to put the puppy toy she was holding to 'bed' in the chair (which she did) and then I put her down. So I leave and she keeps saying "puppy - puppy". Then... Crying! Which is SOOOOOO wierd because she RARELY cries when I put her down. So I'm like whatever she'll fall asleep sooner or later - mean mom i know! She does, all is well. I start cleaning and guess what I find - her pacifier. I TOTALLY forgot that one crutial step in the going to bed routine! So know I know why she cried - and now I also know that she can go to sleep without it! Bye Bye pacifier.

Sarah!!

2009-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Sarah!!!! I heard you had your baby! Congratulations! I've been checking your blog everyday and still no pictures!! I'm waiting!

2008-12-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We have MORE pictures! Christmas morning was a blast! Piper loved it and was great at passing out all the presents. Santa brought her a stroller and a baby doll, a broom and mop, and a book! Piper is still pushing her stroller around as I type! Grandmommy and Granddaddy got her a super fun rocking horse that she just adores! As you can see

Here Dad is putting together a toy - what dad's do best!

We loved the presents Kristy and John got us THANK YOU!!!! Piper wanted to put on her dress the MOMENT she opened it - and she walks around like a little princess. She really loves it!

Piper got a sketch doodle thing in her stocking and was VERY intense in whatever she was drawing. Mom's going to put Piper to work! she got a broom and mop to help mommy at home!

Dad got mom a beautiful little girl dancing. It completes mom's set and is pretty darn cute!

Not sure what was so funny but it captures the moment.

Dad and Becky ready for Christmas to begin.

Piper and her Beloved stroller.

Mommy opening up piper's new baby. We has such a fun Christmas and still are!!!! We miss everyone and hope to see your pictures too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the four of us!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

Curtis and I decided VERY last minute to drive up to Virginia for Christmas. I was talking to mom on Tuesday (the got to VA on Saturday) and thought why are we being such bumms! We should suck it up and conquer the dreaded drive so we could see the fam for Christmas!! And we are SOOOOO glad we did. We have had such a blast. We got in late on tuesday night (around 1am) but once we got out of the car Piper was WIDE awake ready to play with grandmommy and granddaddy! After a good night sleep we decided to go to the little diner down the road for breakfast and it was So yummy! Nope! we didn't even shower! We were TOO hungry!After naps and a yummy italian pizza dinner we decided to go down to D.C. to see the Christmas tree and some of the monuments. Grandmommy and Becky quick got Piper a good winter coat and hat while we napped and she looked so cute and LOVED all the attention she was getting for wearing it!Here we are at the White House tree. It was HUGE and there were TONS of lights!

The fam with the gorgeous white house in the background. You cant see it very well but it was just beautiful!!!!!

While were were walking around to see all the trees from each state we found this massive dog. It was the NICEST dog ever and the owner was so nice to let piper pet him and get a picture with him. I think piper was ready to go for a ride on him.

After we got home we had a fun Christmas Eve singing songs and reading/singing (that would be grandmommy) the night before xmas. We had a GREAT night and soon piper was snuggled in her pack n' play awaiting Christmas morning.

We'll get more pictures up from this morning! Merry Christmas!

Decorating Tips?

2008-12-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I need some major help decorating!!! I just have NO style or decorating sence AT ALL!!! How long have we been in the house and I STILL haven't done ANY decorating (besides putting up the nativity-even that needs some work) Anyway, I keep seeing all of these AMAZING things all my friends are doing and think - DANG what is wrong with me! Julie has this amazing idea for her girl's room which is going to be so cute, I LOVE Kimberly's living room! With the pictures hanging from ribbon and the Pierson written on the wall. And I just saw your new home improvement Brittany and it is SOOOOOO beautiful!!!!! So anyone have any tips for me. Curtis is able to do stuff- I just need help thinking of fun things to do! If you see any pictures or any tips on HGTV let me know! Thanks

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Here's our little Bee on he 2nd Halloween. She was SOOOO cute! Grandma and Grandpa Clayton were in town so we were able to celebrate with them and we just had a blast. After Piper's nap, I started getting her ready for her big debue as a bee. She got into her black clothes and we talked about trick-or-treating. We had a yummer chili dinner with grandma and grandpa and dad and then Piper got all dress up. I thought she would cry since she did the first time I attempted to put her in it (to check the size) but she didn't. She did great and was so excited to buzz around. Here she is in all of her bumble bee glory.Knocking on her first door! Piper really got into it for a 19 month old. She wasn't as shy as I thought and was pretty good about walking up to the doors - she knew was she would get! Here we are after our outing. Piper loved to share her candy.

Oh the candy!

Our New House!

2008-11-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

So, here it is! Sorry it took so long to post but our computer is lame! Anyway these are the pictures from the weekend we moved in (oct 10). We just LOVE our new house! Especially Piper! She was sooooo excited the night we moved in - she would run around to evey room and sprawl out on the carpet or tile.

Here are her and dad enjoying the plush NEW carpet.

This is Piper's pink room. She was very concerned about her crib when we took it apart. Here she is glad to see it back.

This is Piper's bathroom with the original paint color. She has a frog shower curtain. (I re-painted this bathroom a couple weeks ago to a more bright green - like the color of the frog)

Piper's room again.

Kitchen/dining. We're loving the beadboard! Good job Curtis.

Living room.

Where's Piper??
There she is!!!! Piper LOVED to play in the empty cabinets. The next day she was VERY confused to see pots and pans in them!!!

As you can see we hadn't hung any pictures yet and that is still the case! I just can't bring myself to put holes in the wall not to mention I have NO decorating skills. We'll see what happens with that. Halloween pictures to come!

Baby Gap Contest

2008-10-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

Oh the vanity! I know - silly - but my true incentive is a free trip to CA so I can see my BF TIFF!! And free baby clothes! And of course I think my Daughter is beautiful - but then again everyone thinks there own child is the most beautiful - haha. Anyway, for the 4 people that look at this - tell me which picture you think is the best if any.

This picture is for you (Tiff). This is Piper's curl potental - of course it depends on the humidity.

Piper

2008-09-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Piper LOVES frogs (toads)! Whenever we go on a walk at night, she likes to look for this little frog that has taken up residence in our neighbors corner. It's really cute.

And We're Back

2008-09-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

OK! So Here is another house update. Sorry, I haven't been very good at keeping up with it but it's just been moving so fast that I think "oh I'll post new pictures tomorrow because this or that will be done..." Etc. Anyway, here is what is looks like as of last friday. This is Piper's bathroom (not supposed to be pink - not sure when they'll repaint??) And then we have Piper's bedroom (notice the beadboard door!!!!!!! Loving it!!) AND notice the big window - yup that was a change I made from the original plans. There's only supposed to be a single window there but I had them change it to a double window and am SO glad I did.

K... So here is the dining room! I was worried about that bead board but I think it turned out just fine. I was also very worried about the tile (surprise surprise) but I really like that TOO! (It looks a little lighter in person).

I changed my hardwood option like a week or two before it was put in (talk about cutting it close!) I changed it from the distessed planks to the brazilian hardwood (hope this didn't hurt any of the amazon:( )

K... On to the Kitchen. The Granite was put in on Thursday and I've been dying to see it! I think it matches just great.

Alright here is curtis' creation! He added the "spot lights" "can lights" (whatever they are called) over the fireplace and in the foyer. He told me he had done it but I couldn't really picture what he was talking about. But now, after seeing it I LOVE IT!!!! Good job Curtis!!!!!!

And there you have it. That's the house. We are so excited to move in. I've been packing a little here and there but probably should step it up!! Only 1.5 weeks left! I have Curtis recite the schedule to me every night - yesturday was the carpet, today is cleaning and something with water, and hopefully by the end of the week - landscaping. I'm trying not to go up to see it until saturday so I don't waste anymore gas! Iwent up at least 4 times last week! Not good on the gas tank - oops.

So enough about the house. Piper is super cute and getting bigger. She loves her daddy and now says "ba-bye dada" WAY CUTE. She has a mind of her own though and LOVES to push my buttons. Oh well, what can you do - guess it's just the age. I'll put up pics of her next.

:)

2008-09-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

My cell phone was ran over by a lawn mower.

Update on the House!

2008-08-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ok! So Here are some pictures of our house (in progress). Three saturdays ago I got they a picture of the poured foundation.

Then... 2 saturdays ago they had started framing. I was dying to see it and I wanted to check out one window situation so Curtis took me out. Piper got all prettied up in her chinese outfit her granddaddy got her in China and when we got out there and were checking out things it started to sprinkle. I asked Curtis to run to the car to get the umbrella. The moment he got to the car it started DOWN POURING!! We got soaked! There was no longer a need for the umbrella so we just let Piper play in the puddles. You should have seen her face when it started though!!! It was hillarious. She didn't know what to think of all that water!

Here she is getting ready to go see the house.

And Here she is playing in the puddles.

OK, so here is our house 2 days ago!!! It looks like a house!

This is the living room.
And this is the living room from the other direction. And this is the back screened porch.

Another day at the Beach!

2008-08-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

So, two Saturdays ago we went to the beach with out friends and I forgot to post pictures!! Bad Shauna. We got up "early" on Saturday and went straight to the beach and had such a blast! It was SOOO nice out - we beat the heat (at least a little). The water was warm and the waves were so fun - small, but Curtis and I still caught a few rides on the booggy boards.

Here's Piper ready for the Beach.

The walk just to get to the beach was so pretty. The houses that line the beach care gorgeous too. Such a tiny little girl and such a HUGE ocean.

Family Picture! fun fun.

Dad and Piper playing in the sand. Piper is such a good little digger.

After the beach! Someone's ready for a nap.

After nap time, we decided to walk around Charleston. It was such a beautiful day and we thought it would be fun to do a little "sight seeing". We didn't educate ourselve on any of the history - just looked at all of the pretty houses and views.

We stopped at the park for an italian Ice and it was AMAZING. Here's Piper LOVING it!

A walk with Dad through the park!

It was so nice to just get out and explore our new "home". There's so much to do here! And so much to see - again and again!

For the Claytons!

2008-08-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! I'm not sure if you guys check out our blog but if you do I wanted to post these pictures for you! We were able to see Darleen, Chad and Allison on Sunday and visit with them. It was so fun to see them and hang out. We almost felt like we were back in Utah. Curtis and I had dinner with Donald and Julie Sunday evening (we had enchiladas and cornbread -yum!) and then just hung out with them playing games and what not until the clan rolled into town.

Here are Darleen and Curtis holding little Emmerson. Kennedy got stuck cleaning up our games and junk food- sorry Kennedy! And here are the rest of them just chillin'. I love Allison's Hair - isn't it cute.

Anyway, It was really fun to see everyone and have a mini "reunion". We're so glad Donald and Julie have moved down to Summerville! Piper already has just loved playing with the kids and being with family.

Last Weekend

2008-08-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

We had a very relaxing weekend last week. Curtis cleaned both of the cars and I cleaned the house while Piper took a way long nap. After, Curtis wanted to ride his bike around so Piper and I watched for a little bit. Then Piper decided it was her turn so we took her around the apartments with her little bike helmet on. She thought she was pretty cool. I can't believe she kept the helmet on!

Later, we decided to go to the pool and take a dip (It is SOOO hot - today it's suposed to be 104-107 WITHOUT the heat index!!!!!!) Piper loved it! We swam for about and hour and then went to dinner at Los Arcos! YUM! Piper did so good. The waitress won her a teddy bear from one of those toy machines and we had a grand 'ol time.

New House Update

2008-08-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

So... We had a little set back on the house but things are back on track now. Last week when Curtis checked the house he realized that the block wasn't built high enough (something about flooding in the front if they left it the way it was) So he had to tell them to tear out the top layer and re-build it higher. It set us back a couple days, but not too bad. They ordered the block and got it going pretty fast. Here's a picture of the blocks that they tore down. And here is the way it is supposed to look! Piper loved playing in the dirt. Here she is posing for a picture in the master bathroom and Curtis is in the garage.
This is what it looks like from the back. That square coming off the back is the screened porch (they do that A LOT out here). Curtis is thinking of building deck instead of doing the concrete slab at the bottom. I think that would look SO nice! Can you believe how high it is!! I knew that was the point of a raised slab but I just didn't realize it was going to be that high up. I hope the deck thing works out!! It would look so great. I just can't wait to get in and buy patio furniture and have dinners out on our screened porch with the fountain going in the background!
Anyway, that's how things are going there. Curtis said they are going to finnish filling it in with dirt today, then do the soil test tomorrow, get the plumbers in on wed and do the inspection, then have someone do something on thurs and have those inspector do that inspection on thurs and pour concrete friday so they can start framing on monday! WOW that's a LOT!!!!!!! Hope it works out according to the schedule! I'll keep the blog updated!

Oh yeah, incase anyone cares - I'm going to have Curtis have someone (?) bring in at least 2 more loads of dirt for the back yard so it doesn't slope down so bad into the lake. Just incase anyone was worried about that! haha

Monday

2008-07-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

Piper and I went on a little drive today with our friends to look a house for sale she was maybe interested in. It ended up being right where we are building so we took a little detour going home to see how things were going.

Yup! That SOLD sign is for us! That's our lot! The got everything ready (footings - I guess) and are supposed to poor concrete tomorrow but it just POURED rain!!!!!!!! So who knows when they'll pour. I'm SOOOO excited for it to just get going! AND to finally move out of this dumb apt! The neighbors up stairs sound like animals walking around. We just don't get how you can walk THAT loud?!?!?! So it will be so nice to have our own home with no one upstairs making a bunch of ruckas.
After our little outing we stopped at Sonic for yummy treats since it's sooooo HOT! Here's Piper with her very first strawberry slushy and it's all for her! Can you tell she's excited
Here's her friend Emily with her yummy shake.
Over all, we had a fun Monday!

The Good Life

2008-07-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

So we've just had a chillin' week and have had such an awesome time! Here is Piper lounging on her chair that grandmommy and granddaddy got her. She's trying to open the wallet they sent her. Those zippers can be kindda tricky!

Saturday was our stake Pioneer celebration! They had it up at some farm north of us. Here Dad and Piper are ready to get going! Piper's excited to show off her dress that her friend gave here and see all the fun games they've got going on.

They had little carts for the dad's to wheel around. Piper just needs a whip!
After the games (which I have to admit we were very late and missed out on most of the games but they had horse shoes, three legged races, etc.) we all had a cook out with hotdogs and hamburgers and delicious watermelon and Yes brownies! Not to sure why the frown - I think she is warning everyone NOT to take her brownie away from her!
Here we are on a Hay ride. When we got to the farm we mingled and then lunch was ready and they stopped the hay rides. I was worried we'd missed out and poor little Piper wouldn't get to experience this wonderful funness so I asked curtis if he new how to drive a tractor so we could just take it on a spin ourselves. I got the most dumbfounded look like 'do you know who you're married to????' Ok so yeah that was a dumb question!

I think we wore her out!Tuesday my friend and I took the girls to the water park by our place - IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't want to leave!!!!!!! NO JOKE! This was Piper's favorite place at first. She wasn't really interested in venturing out. She just loved to wade in the water and try to grab the water.I finally got her out the the bigger kiddy pool and she loved it. There was water spraying everywhere and kids laughing all around us. She thought it was pretty awesome. There were kiddy slides with water so we asked the life guard people if we could go down with them- they said YES! We had a BLAST! I wish there was someone to take out picture because Piper was just laughing the whole time. She would have done that the rest of the day if she could. But I finally dragged her away from the and we tried the wave pool - not too much interest there. Besides we can do that at the ocean. So THEN we did the Lazy River. They wouldn't let us use our baby tubes by themselves but said we could put them inside one of the park's tubes. So, I got a double tube and put piper in one side and me on the other. She wasn't too into that because she couldn't see out so I took her out and lounged across the whole thing and sat her on the big tube. She LOVE that! She would just splash her feet, play with my hair and check out what else was going on. We really did have so much fun!

I love my beautiful Piper!

2008-07-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

I just saw Cynthia's post about the AMAZING family in Vegas and their tragic story. I'm not a cryer but I balled. I didn't even know the whole story yet but when I saw the picture of their beautiful baby, the tears just rolled in. I am so grateful to this mother for helping me and others view their child/children in a different light. For helping us remember to cherish our little ones and for helping us to recognize that even the difficult times of parenting should be cherished. I think I have always cherished every moment I have with Piper but this blog is a great reminder and has made me realize how delicate life is. I love my beautiful baby. She has the most beautiful smile. Her giggle is beautiful music and her babbles are precious. I love how she TRIES to walk really fast when we say "I'm gonna get you" and how when you offer her treats the takes as much as will fit in her tiny fist and shove it all in her mouth and then push on her mouth to make sure nothing falls out. I love her mischivious smile. I love how she puts her hand out and says "huh" when she needs help going up or down stairs or curbs. I love how she gets really excited about folding her arms when we pray and how sometimes she just smiles at us and lets us fold our arms while she watches and then nods her head when we say "amen". She has a sweet, calm, always happy disposition (she must have gotten from her dad - heaven knows I'm not the calm one). She is beautiful!

A House Story

2008-07-02T10:46:00.001-07:00

Ok, so we are buying/building a house! How fun is that!?!? This is our lot - officially. There's a story behing this. We originally signed on the wrong lot!!!! And found out on Sunday when we went for a little drive through our to be new subdivision. Anyway, everything was all set to start this week (the permit was in) and then we realized that we had the wrong lot. SO we had to redo the paper work (well we didn't but some REALLY nice people at Brentwood did). I thought it would take at least another week to get a new permit but Curtis called me today and said it was all in and they started TODAY! HOORAY!!! I guess they put some peg things out and tomorrow they will test the soil and then we're off. I'm so excited. It will be SOOOOOO great to get out of an apt. So here it is in all of its glory - our new (right) lot! And here's our fountain view.
Hope the alligators don't get us!

Randomness

2008-06-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share some more favorite pictures. These are totally randome but so cute. Here's Piper walking with help from dad. GO PIPER! (She can do it by herself now but this is her learning)
Good morning Sunshine!
Piper trying to sneak a little play time with daddy's computer.
We broke our old camera and had to get a new one. I was just playing around with all of the functions and got some cute shots of Piper.

Summer Fun!

2008-06-28T05:01:00.001-07:00

Beach Fun! For Memorial Day we took Piper to the beach. She was sooooo cute and had so much fun. She loved to play in the sand and would play in the little pools of water on the beach. We took her out into the ocean too. At first she thought it was too cold but she warmed up to it and we had fun jumping the waves.

Anyone for a dorito?

We've had lots of play dates this summer and piper just loves hanging with her pals.
One playdate was to our apt pool. The kids love it.

My friend Katie and I took the kids to the "sprinkler" at the awesome park by our place. They had so much fun splashing in the water and cooling off.

Spring Fun!

2008-06-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

So here are some pictures of what we've been up to this last spring. Mom and I went to the strawberry patch to pick strawberries with our friends so that we could learn how to make JELLY! It turned out really yummy.

Here's I am enjoying my chair that grandmommy and granddaddy gave me for my birthday and i'm LOVING lounging in the PJs Tiff and Brad and Ava gave me. Yup and that's one of my new favorite books! (it comes in close to the 5 little monkeys)

Dad had a birthday in there somewhere and we had some yummy Texas cake! I had so much fun showing dad how to open his birthday presents.

And Even MORE Fun!

2008-06-28T04:34:00.001-07:00

That's right! There's MORE! We went to the Cypress Gardens with Grandmommy and daddy and Becky. It was so fun to learn about the swamp on our little boat ride and see all of the pretty flowers!

Grandmommy even spotted an alligator! See him?!?!?!

More Fun

2008-06-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

Piper got to spend a lot of time with her grandmommy and granddaddy while they were here. We took her to the awesome park by us and let her play in the rocks, swing, and slide. Here Piper is Happy.....................................................................................................Not so happy...............

Happy again. haha

This slide is awesome! It is SOOOO big and we had so much fun testing it out!

We took Grandmommy, Granddaddy, and Becky to the beach and Piper loved to play in the sand. Piper got a little sand in her eyes - sad!