{A Fun Day}

A couple months ago, we had new neighbors move into the apartment directly beneath us...and to our wonderful surprise, they had two little kids very close in age to our own. I've become quite good friends with Becky and Alexa LOVES her new little friend, Johnny! They also have a little girl, Katelyn, who is a few months older than Payton. So today, we took Becky and her kiddos to the zoo. Alexa and Johnny had a blast. She's always asking if Johnny is outside and if she can play with him. What fun it is to have great neighbors!!

And this is how Payton enjoyed our day at the zoo!!

Payton: 5 Months Old!!

Our sweet Payton is 5 months old. With each passing month, I just can't believe how quickly the time goes. She's now trying to sit on her own. She laughs and talks ALL the time. She loves to watch her big sister. She's so aware of everything that is going on around her and she LOVES to smile at her daddy!! She's starting to sleep better which is wonderful for everyone and she really is a very happy baby.

Alexa didn't want to miss out on the photo op! She's very adamant about not being left out when it comes to her sister! Sorry about the open mouth shot, I tried getting her to smile...but she just wanted everyone to see her snack instead!! :-) Oh and you can see how her black eye got worse! Poor thing, it really did look nasty for a few days.

{Bedhead}

Hahahaha....I just love Payton's hair in the above picture! She'd had a little piggy tail in earlier in the day which resulted in this! The hair, combined with the cheeks....oh I love it!

Both the girls get some crazy bedhead. Alexa refuses to have anything done to her hair after nap time and so it's usually pretty crazy the rest of the day! I wonder if Payton's hair will lighten up like Alexa's since Alexa started out at least as dark as Payton's hair is in this picture???!!!

Accident Prone??

So today Alexa got her first major black eye (at least I THINK it's her first). She was playing with a friend and got bumped right next to her eye resulting in an immediate black eye. It doesn't look so bad in this picture but it definitely got worse (since I'm backdating this post and actually writing it from the future.....scary, I know!!!). But this incident started off a chain of accidents for our little lady. It seemed like every time she turned around, she was bumping into something or falling and scraping a knee.

Hopefully the stars will realign and soon move onto some other poor unfortunate soul!!

We are a happy fa-mi-ly!!

Once again, Alexa was playing out on the front porch while it was raining. I was inside folding laundry and heard her singing and couldn't believe I was successful in capturing some of it on video. At first, before I got the camera going, she was singing about waiting for daddy to come home. Then it switched to "happy family". What a cute girl we have!!

Rollin', Rollin'...almost!!!

Payton has been trying for a couple days now to roll from her back to her tummy. She's sooooo almost there, she just can't figure out how to get her little arm out from under her so she can fully complete the roll. It's pretty cute watching her try though.

**Rolling Update: The very next day, I went in to get her from her nap and her little head was peeking at me over her bumper pad in her crib!! Our little lady finally managed to complete the rolling over! Yay Payton!!

Singin' in the Rain!

Alexa LOVES the rain! We finally got her her very own little umbrella and to say she was excited was an understatement. After church today, she played outside in the rain for quite some time...loving every minute of it.

I just can't get enough...

...of her sweet smile, her beautiful eyes, her chubby rolls, those cheeks...ALL of it!!! We love this little girl sooooooo much and are so grateful she is a part of our family!

Twinkle, Twinkle...

Payton has become quite the talker. She jabbers on and on during the majority of her waking hours! This time though Alexa wanted to have her share of the limelight. And boy did she perform!! Usually she shies away once the camera comes out and she knows we're trying to capture some video. But I just love her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...she surprised both Kevin and I by singing ALL of the words. We didn't know she knew it all so well!! Smart little girl!

Splish Splash I was Takin' a Bath...

...all of on a Saturday night!!

After the tailgate party tonight, I came home alone to get both girls ready for bed and decided to cut bath time duty in half since Kevin had to stay and help clean up. Normally the girls bathe separately but it was already way past Alexa's bedtime, and I just didn't have the energy to do it twice. So they got to have tubby time together. Thanks to the bumbo for keeping Payton safe while we scrubbed and rinsed.

I'm sure there will be many more shared splishes and splashes to be had in the days to come!

A-R-I-Z-O-N-A...gooooooo Wildcats!!

We had the 1st Annual Louisville 1st Ward Tailgate Party tonight. It was Kevin's idea and he was soooo excited. He has missed being able to see all of the Arizona games on TV, as being out east, they're not always televised. And he's definitely looking forward to moving back home to be able to tailgate in style. But we did our best for our ward party and totally thought we were going to win the award for most team spirit! Boy we were wrong!!! The V. family went out and practically bought out the UofL store...so we had to take 2nd place. But we had a great time and it was a fabulous ward activity. We're sad that we won't be around for the 2nd Annual!

Newfound Freedom....

...AND entertainment! Goodbye swing...hello exersaucer!! The swing is seriously a thing of the past...Payton has no interest in it anymore. She wants to be up, seeing what's going on in this crazy world around her!

First Piggy!!

Yay!!! We can do Payton's hair in pig tails now!! Actually, we probably could have done piggies on her right when she was born...but I wanted to spare her tender newborn head the pain!! Anyways, isn't she just the most adorable thing you've ever seen???? :-)

Aren't they BOTH the most adorable things you've ever seen???!!! I love my girls so much. And thankfully Alexa thinks her baby sister is pretty cool so we don't have to give her back!

Another First!!

We attempted to start Payton on solid foods..."attempted" being the key word. She didn't like the rice cereal at all. We tried it a couple of times and just no interest...and so we decided to hold off and try again after we get back from our trip to Arizona next month. I really didn't feel like taking a bunch of baby food with me...yeah, I'm lazy, what's it to ya???!!!

Look who's SITTING!!

Okay, so it's not a full-on, straight up sit - it's more like a three-point stance :-) ...but

Payton is getting there!!