Merry Christmas

We have been busy baking cookies for Santa, pies for Christmas dinner, and appetizers for the 15 people joining us for dinner this evening. The turducken is in the oven, caramel rolls are eaten and the boys are playing with the new playstation. Wyatt is enjoying his noisy toys from Uncle Bill and Grammi. Payton has already opened her new Barbie food show set, learn to potty baby alive and is finally now eating after telling me her legs were wobbly. I am folding clothes, picking up in preparation for the evening and trying to enjoy the day. I can't wait to use my hoodini wine bottle opener! Merry Christmas!

The First Haircut

I promised Uncle Bill that during his visit Wyatt could get his first haircut. So the boys went out this morning. They left with my baby boy and came back with a little boy!

Mike spiked up Y's hair for Uncle Bill's arrival.
The boys

Ready to cut. Mike said they went through 3 lollipops but my brave boy made it through without a tear!

Complete transformation.

A side view. The golden locks gone....

Winter is Here

Mother nature cooperated with the official first day of winter, it is cold here today. After days and days of wearing shorts in December Wyatt had to don a hat to go "outside tractor". Of course, the forecast calls for more temps in the 70's next week. But for today it feels like Christmas weather......

Holiday Art

Baby Jesus

by

Payton Perkins

Blowing Words

Tucking Payton into bed this evening, as I do each night, I began to pray. I heard this noise coming from my daughter. I finished praying then said to her, "We don't make noises during prayer time" - to which she replied, "I was just blowing the words up to heaven". What do you say to that? Except smile and say "I love you".

Santa

Mike took the kids to the squadron Christmas party today. Santa hitched a ride on a T34. The kids had a blast. They each received a book from Santa. Payton had a chat with him, explaining she wanted the Barbie kitchen set. Wyatt sat with Sissy on his lap with no crying. He later told me "Panta, plane". Tell me - who else but a military child gets to see Santa cruise in on a plane? How cool is their dad!

Gingerbread House

Payton and Daddy had a construction project tonight. Building the gingerbread house.

This year patterns were the key. Payton meticulously positioned candies on the house just so. When she was running out she refused to use other candy because it was different.

The finished product! It sits on top of her dresser - far from little hands......little destructive hands.

Our Little Mouse

Payton had her first acting performance this week. She played mouse in "The Long Winter". The play was put on by her acting class. While our drama queen loves putting on shows - she tends to get stage fright when it comes to performing in front of others. So I was a little worried about whether she would in fact go on - and remember her lines. She shined! She was the star of the show. She even helped come up with her costume. We are so proud of her - bring on the Oscar!

Our Tree

We tried something new this year. We drove to a Christmas tree farm last month and "marked" our tree. Then traveled back today to cut it down and bring it home. Apparently the marking of the trees is a big deal here, the owners told us that people come as early as July (yes July!) to mark their tree! With that said all the big trees were marked. We picked a sweet little tree though and had the best time stringing garland on it to mark it as ours. Wyatt's favorite part was walking around with the measuring stick. Payton just wanted to be the one to officially pick the tree. We did realize upon our return that our tree is a bit sparse in spots and not as tall as Mike would like. But the experience alone was so worth it. I believe we might have found our first Florida tradition!
The farm is owned by the sweetest couple. The trees are literally their back yard!

Daddy leading Payton and Wyatt off to find just the right tree.

Decorating the "one".

Payton was able to help saw it down.

Daddy and Payton walking back to get the tree wrapped up.

The finished product. The picture really doesn't do it justice - it is quite a cute tree. Wyatt is at the foot yelling "whooaaa" because Daddy has just turned on the star. It was such fun decorating with the two of them. So nice to have Mike home this holiday season.

Leaf Jumping

We walked across the yard to Ms Alberta and asked if we could jump in her leaves. Of course she said yes. She and Mr Jack watched as we racked a couple of piles and the kids did the rest. Y didn't really jump, just kind of fell into the leaves.

Payton....she jumped!

More Memories

I am yet again reminded of feelings as I am sorting through the endless supply of pictures stored on my computer. Not that there aren't in the present moments going on that I could maybe blog about - I have just been too tired at the end of the night, and too busy during the day, to put forth the effort. I know, terrible excuse. So in the meantime......my naptime project was yet another folder of photos - crop, edit, upload, develop, store on cd. Here are a couple favorites.

I love this picture. The awesome thing is that my camera back in the day was not the fastest. So I remember being thrilled to get a shot like this. It was a fun day of playing in the leaves at Grandmas.
Obvious why this is my favorite.

Yummy

Wyatt got his first chance to lick the bowl today. I made banana bread. I gave him a beater first and he loved it. Then I traded him for the spatula. He licked it clean before giving it up! That's my boy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice Thanksgiving with family. It was a beautiful Florida day, perfect for playing outside after turkey. I'm tired from hosting all week and from a long day of cooking. There are many things to be thankful for this thanksgiving. Our thankful tree is complete - I can't wait to see what next years will look like. Happy turkey day!

Picture Perfect

I could not resist this shot!

A New Tradition

In my search for fall crafts I stumbled upon a cool tradition - the thankful tree. So here is the beginnings of our first thankful tree! Can't wait to see how each new day brings new leaves on our tree - and new reasons to be thankful during this and every season. Happy Thanksgiving!

Some New Rides

Christmas has already started for our children. These are their presents from Grandma Perkins. Wyatt yelled tractor! and went straight to work on his. Payton loved her car, and was thrilled when Daddy let her go in fast speed! She took brother for some rides too. They rode until the batteries were dead! Thanks Grandma!

Happy Early Birthday Miss Amy!

Make a Smilebox greeting

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I have decided to finally begin getting caught up on my pictures. I have two years worth waiting on my computer for me to do something with them. So I have begun the task - month by month I am editing pictures then uploading them to shutterfly and housing them on a disc. It makes me feel better that they are at least off my computer. Don't ask when I will get around to doing something with the now developed stack of pictures! So far I have done February, March and April of 2007. The first few months with Wyatt. What a crazy time. We brought home baby #2, a little brother for Payton. I was so excited that Mike was actually going to be home for 10 whole days with me after the birth! This was something I didn't get to experience with Payton (note - if you have a baby during The Basic School you are on your own!) So those first 2 weeks were so nice. Still crazy and tired but I had a partner. Someone to help me navigate all that goes with having 2 children. I remember thinking, "I can do this, it's not as bad as I thought". Then Mike went back to work. I immediately starting feeling overwhelmed. Wyatt was just like his sister in many ways, the first being that he didn't like to sleep in his crib. That posed a problem - I don't do well with no sleep. He also took after his sister in the spitting up department - only 10 times worse. It was so bad we had a "spot" on the couch we would hold him on. It was covered with a sheet, towels and burp clothes. After each and every feeding - there he blows! I am getting side tracked - I think the point I am trying to make is that in the moment, in those first 12 weeks probably (especially during week 6 thru 12 when Mike was gone) I had a hard time focusing on the joy of my little boy. It was hard to see past the crying and spitting up. There were times when I would rock him that I would focus on holding him and try to take a mental picture - knowing that we were done having babies. It has been so fun though, looking through these old pictures. Now that the spitting up is done and the sleeping is so much better - I can look at these pictures with new eyes and look back at the joy that was my baby boy and the growth that my daughter has undergone in just 18 months. Where has the time gone? Hope you enjoy this little stroll down my memory lane....

Our sweet boy, I can't believe he was ever that small!
We would have to hold that pacifier in his mouth for him to take it. He is now a thumbsucker. This is one of those times I tried to capture in my mind. And I am pretty sure I made Mike take this picture.

Think Mom took this one. Mike was gone I believe.

I love the look on her face. Like look at what I'm holding!

A family shot taken with our camera's timer.

I love this one. She just recently stopped sucking her thumb. It reminds me how big she is getting. I miss that little girl......

So peaceful

I saw this type of shot somewhere and wanted to recreate it.

I have no idea who took this. But I do remember sitting many a time on the couch with that pacifier trying to console our little man. Payton learned the word colic pretty quick!

I am posting this one for Mom and Bill. You know why.

Speaks for itself. I actually made it black and white in photoshop. I just love it. So cute!

Our House

So the builders have been hard at work on our new home. From a cleared out lot to a slab of foundation to framing it has been exciting to happen before our eyes. We have been so impressed with the builder, working on weekends to stay on schedule and the communication has been amazing. Today is Monday and they have nothing scheduled because they worked all weekend. We are looking forward to showing family our new place over the holidays. So after the Christmas chaos and excitement ends our moving adventure begins!