~CUTENESS~

{Picture in Picture}

I thought this picture was pretty cool!

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Today is Alexa's friend Zach's 4th Birthday! Here they are playing on "Birthday Island". They got to navigate through with flashlights, play duck duck goose, london bridge is falling down, eat lunch in their fort and have cake. How fun! It's amazing to me that Zach is now 4 YEARS old! When we first met him, he was 4 MONTHS old. It definitely doesn't seem like that much time has gone by. But then, I was pregnant with Alexa when we met him and now she's almost 3 1/2. CRAZY! Alexa had such a fun time with her friends - from left to right - Sydney T., Zach R., Kasen T., Brielle K. and Alexa. She's sure going to miss all her great friends when we move. :-(

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In fact, the other day after church, Alexa told me "I'm going to break Katherine's heart mom". She then proceeded to tell me that Brielle is moving to "Utahn", she's moving to "bear-down 'Ona" and she's "going to break Katherine's heart". I said, yep she's sure going to miss you! Apparently they were talking about who was moving and who was staying in her Primary Class that day. It will be a tough adjustment and we'll stay in touch with our friends here, but we'll make new friends too...hopefully!!! :-)

More Snow!

Well, we had another snow storm come through Louisville, much to my dismay...but much to Alexa's happiness!! I swear, if she didn't look so much like me, I might think she wasn't my daughter when it comes to her love of snow!! :-) If I never see the white stuff again in my life, I'd honestly be a happy girl!

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BUT it does make me happy to see her so excited about it! And this time she got to have her daddy play outside with her. She did a much better job this year making a snow angel!

She went and knocked on Jonny's door to have him come play outside too but I didn't get any pictures of them together before they headed inside to warm up with hot cocoa, oh and marshmallows too, can't forget those!!! :-) Here they are getting all warmed up and relaxing after their outside excursion!

What a fun day!!

{Payton: 9 Months}

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Payton Jae is now 9 Months Old!!! It's crazy to me how much time has gone by since the day she was born! She's been such a wonderful addition and blessing to our family, we really don't know what we'd do without her!

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This month has been a big one in the life of Payton:

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*She is OFFICIALLY no longer nursing!!

*She is now crawling (as of Jan 3rd) ALL over the place!

*She finally gave me a 12 hours stretch of sleep at night (Jan 6th) and has been doing 12-14 hrs since!!!! (We're all very, very happy about this!!!)

*She started to pull herself up on things on Jan 15th.

*She started clapping on Jan 18th.

*Her first two teeth (the bottom ones) finally broke through on the SAME day (Jan 18th).

*She can sit up from a crawling position (Jan 20th).

*She loves to mimic...especially whatever Alexa is doing.

*She is affectionately known as "sweet pea" by her big sister".

*She loves to get into everything now that she's more mobile.

*She's still saying "ba-ba", "ma-ma", "da-da", "ya-ya" and has added "hi-da" (hi dad), "ga-ga".

*She loves playing with blocks and making the towers crash.

*She doesn't like to be left alone and will yell in protest if I even just disappear around a corner!

*She doesn't like to be left out of the action...if daddy and Alexa go upstairs, she'll "yell" at the bottom of the stairs until daddy comes and gets her.

*She still loves any baby food I give her, except for the chunkier versions so I guess we'll sneak those in periodically!!

*She LOVES snacks - baby puffs, cheese puffs, veggie sticks, yogurt melts, etc.

*She can and has been able to hold her own sippy cup for quite some time and feed herself her formula!

*She's still taking at least 2 naps a day, and sometimes even a shorter 3rd one.

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We had her 9 month check up this afternoon. She's such a little trooper, she had to get one shot, have them take a urine sample AND prick her toe for a blood sample. She's been getting over another cold, but other than that, she's a healthy, happy little girl!

Here are her stats at 9 months:

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20 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile)

27 1/4" (50th percentile)

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Happy 9 Months Sweet Pea!

Piggies, Cars & Chompers!!

I just love putting piggie tails in Payton's hair! What a doll baby she is!

She finally is big enough to enjoy her Christmas present from Gramma & Papa Baker. Okay so it really hasn't been that long since Christmas but still!! I'm sure we'll have many more days of fun with this toy!

And FINALLY....Payton has TEETH!!! Yay! I can be excited about it since I'm not nursing anymore!! :-) Seriously though, these two little teeth (you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see them better) teased us for weeks. They kept looking like they had come through but I couldn't feel anything until just yesterday. The poor thing, they came through together...I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a trend with this little lady!

~JOY~

I just LOVE the look of pure joy on Alexa's face. Isn't it great how such a simple thing as blowing bubbles with daddy can create such happiness??!! I love it!

Crawling is soooo last season!!

Life just got so much more fun for our little Payton. Not only can she crawl everywhere, she can now pull herself up onto things....so much more to see and do!!!

~Uncle David Visits~

Kevin's brother, David, along with his girlfriend, Diane, came into town for a visit. Kevin had to work tonight but Dave and Diane came over to hang out and they kept Alexa well entertained...between David's dancing and Diane's singing primary songs, Alexa was in HEAVEN!!

CRASH!!

I brought out the blocks today to entertain lil' Miss Payton and,

as you can tell, she quite enjoyed them!!

{Little Drummer Girl}

~Little Fishy~

Alexa started her first swim class today. It's a 5 week (1 class/week) class and she loves it! We figured it would be in her best interest to take as many swim classes as possible before we move back to Arizona this summer as I'm sure we'll practically be living at a pool or hopefully anyways! :-)

SNOW Day!

Why is it that kids love snow so much????? We had a pretty good snow storm and Alexa couldn't wait to play in it! We bundled her up the best we could (I refused to buy real winter clothes this year as we'll never need "winter" clothes again!!!), and off she went with Jonny. As you can tell, they had a great time. I even braved the weather (I know, shocking!!!) to watch Alexa and visit with Jonny's mommy! As much as I'm not a fan of snow or cold temperatures, it is pretty fun to see so much joy in your little one's face!

And she's off!!

I knew it wouldn't be long! Before church this morning, she took a couple knees forward and then this afternoon...she really gave it a go! Better get the baby gates out.

Too much of a good thing...

...makes for an orange nose!

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Me thinks I've been feeding Payton too many sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash...and the likes.

Her poor little nose and cheeks are starting to take on an orange-ish hue!!

Probably should start feeding her more green foods to balance things out.

Jesus Wants Me For A...

"...To shine for him each day.

In every way try to please Him.

At home, at school, at play.

A Sunbeam, a Sunbeam

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam.

A Sunbeam, a Sunbeam,

I'll be a Sunbeam for Him."

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In our church, we have the Primary program for children ages 3-11, with classes for the individual age groups. The new kids coming into Primary, the 3 year olds, are called the Sunbeam Class. And the above is a popular Primary song that we sing. Well, since Alexa turned 3 this past November, she now gets to be a "Sunbeam" as of today! She was soooooo excited. She no longer has to go to the Nursery with the younger kids and she thinks it's great that she gets to be with the big kids! I hope she's always this excited about church and the gospel!