..::To Gramma's House We Go::..

We ventured to Elfrida this week to visit Kevin's parents. We hadn't been back to Elfrida since December 2007, when Alexa was 13 months old. This is partly due to the fact that we were in Kentucky for dental school...but also because Kevin's parents were gone for 18 months serving a mission for our Church (they just got back in March). So we figured it was high time to pay a visit. And we had a blast! The girls LOVED being around gramma and papa and Kevin and I LOVED having a brief reprieve from constantly entertaining the girls! We should seriously hire a live-in nanny!! ;-)

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Anyways, as soon as we got there, Alexa was rarin' to go. She didn't want to put off the fun things one bit. So we started off with jumping through the water on the trampoline. As you can see....it was a HUGE hit!

There was a lot of Gramma/Alexa time to be had....games, stories....

....dress up (they were playing "church" here)...

...and more dress up!!

The second day we were there, we headed up to some old ghost towns before it got too hot. It was fun to see the old buildings. Alexa thought that there were actually going to be ghosts of the cowboys who used to live there in them....it took a bit of explaining to convince her otherwise!!

This next picture makes me laugh....Alexa looks like she's just about had enough of life and Payton looks like she's ready to conquer the world!! :-)

Then we went to Kevin's Uncle Gary's farm to see the horses. Alexa has been wanting to ride a horse forever. So here she is checking things out...once she got up close, she wasn't so sure!

But as soon as Uncle Gary told her that her cousins would come and ride the horses, she found the courage to saddle up!

And, of course, Payton had to do everything her big sister does! There's no leaving her out!

Me and my sweet Payton at the farm.

Kevin and the girls checkin' out the cows.

What good is a trip to the farm if you can't ride an old tractor???

Or climb in the bales of hay???

We finished off this action-packed day with a wiener roast in gramma and papa's backyard. Lucky for us, we picked the very brief period of the day when the wind decided to blow the hardest!! Our picnic outside didn't last very long!! But it was still fun and yummy!

And for dessert, we had s'mores...you can see the evidence still on Alexa's face! They sure were delicious!

These are the sunsets from gramma and papa's backyard.

On our way back to Tucson, we stopped by Kevin's Grandparents house, Gramma and Grampa Brown. They had never met Payton before so it was fun to visit with them.

We had such a fun visit and look forward to many more fun times with "mamaw" and "bampaw" as Payton now says! Thanks for letting us come visit!!

:::Outside Looking In:::

This is what Kevin sees just about every time he heads outside to do something in the backyard!

Speaking of our backyard...there's a rite of passage to owning a new home - the FIRST lawn mowing!! This is doubly exciting for us since we laid sod the first week we moved in and we thought it had bit the dust...but it came back, quite beautifully, and now we (by we, I mean Kevin) get to mow it at least once a week!! :-)

C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E

Like mama, like daughter...seriously, who DOESN'T love chocolate???

Kentucky vs Arizona

Well, we finally did it...we're officially Arizona residents! Here is Alexa saying goodbye to mommy and daddy's Kentucky driver's licenses. We held off as long as we could since it costs money to change everything over AND we did just renew our vehicle registration 2 weeks before we moved away from Kentucky...but we couldn't put it off any longer!

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Arizona Driver's Licenses - CHECK

Arizona Vehicle Registration & License Plates - CHECK

Arizona Voter Registration - CHECK

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Yay Arizona...it's great to be back!!

OH how we love...

...OUR BACKYARD!!!

Once Alexa could walk, the ONE thing I really had to complain about in our apartment in Louisville was it's lack of green space. We had two balconies, both of which were not child-friendly, and there were just tiny, TINY patches of grass outside each building. Not to mention, those patches of grass were RIGHT next to the parking lots...not so conducive to children playing. I often looked forward to the day when we could have a yard for the kids to play in. It wasn't even until our last year in Louisville that we even really ventured out to those aforementioned tiny patches of grass to let the kiddos play...and that was because I had my fabulous friend and neighbor there to help keep tabs on my girls!

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But look at us now! We have our own little piece of heaven right behind our house and surrounded by a safe, concrete fence! We LOVE it! We were a bit nervous when the sod Kevin and my mom laid turned all but brown...but as you can see, it's rebounded nicely! And my mom bought this cute little kiddie pool for the girls while she was here, so we can max and relax with the best of them. And best of all...I can send Alexa outside without a worry! Aaaahhhh! :-)

~Mt. Lemmon~

Today, we ventured up to Mt. Lemmon for a picnic with Kevin's brother's family. Duane & Emily, and their two kiddos, moved to Tucson in January, so we're pretty excited to be so close and get to spend time with family. The unique thing about Mt. Lemmon is that it has 3 entirely different ecosystems on it. You start out at the bottom (at 2000 ft above sea level) where there are cactus all around, then you pass oak trees as you climb the 5000 feet to the top (7000 ft above sea level), where there are pine trees. It took us 20 minutes to drive to the top and we got to see all 3 - cactus, oak trees and pine trees. Pretty crazy. Mt. Lemmon even gets snow on it during the winter.

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Anyways, we finally found a picnic spot...although we were a little worried as it seemed everyone else had the same idea.

Daddy & Payton enjoying the pine trees.

Cousins: Alexa & Ainsley.

We had fun doing a little photoshoot!

Then I tried to get a picture with her and this is all I could get...

She finally conceded and said we could take a picture of our shadows! Silly girl.

Needless to say, she wasn't having anything to do with a family picture...so here's us without Alexa!

Once she was on her daddy's shoulders though to make the trek back to the car, all was good so she allowed one picture!

We had a fun day and look forward to many more outings with family and friends!

~More of the House~

Well, here are some more pictures of the house now that the majority of boxes are unpacked. I have a lot of hopes and dreams for our house...many of which will most likely take years to come to fruition, but that's okay. For now, I'll share those hopes and dreams with you...and maybe one day....well, we'll just have to see what happens!! :-)

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Here is our Master Bedroom. Nothing exciting! I would love to have a dark wood or black matching bedroom set with a king size bed...eventually!!

The living room/dining room...there really isn't much going on here. But doesn't my corner shelf look fabulous in black??!! I LOVE it. I guess we really should call this the "piano room" since that's what it will be for probably a long time. But what I'd like in here: 2 dark leather arm chairs on either side of the corner shelf and a nice dark wood dining table to seat at least 8. And that's pretty much all we need in here....some place to entertain when we have friends and family over, with a little extra seating. We spend the majority of our time in the family room anyways!

And thanks to a sweet new neighbor who wasn't using her crib mattress anymore, we were finally able to set up Payton's crib and get her out of the pac-n-play! Poor thing had been sleeping in it for almost a month. And with her crib set up, I felt like I could finally set up her room too. On my wishlist...a cute white dresser for her.

And here's our kitchen/family room. This is where we live pretty much all the time! On the wishlist...which will most likely be a priority once we are able, is a loveseat (as we REALLY need more seating in here) and an area rug (that tile floor isn't very forgiving on little bottoms!!).

And finally...a bit of a change to Alexa's room. I found a steal of a deal on a twin mattress set and so we were able to put away her toddler bed and get her into a bigger bed. She soooo needed it....she was pretty much as tall as her toddler bed and with all her "friends" that she requires to sleep with her, there wasn't much room left at all. And back when Payton was born, my mom had also made Alexa a quilt and pillowsham but did a twin-size quilt so we were excited to finally bring that out.

And that's it folks...I think I've pretty much updated on all the rooms in the house. No need to post a picture of our UPSTAIRS laundry room, just know that I LOVE it!!! And the spare room/office...well, that is a major work in progress, it's kind of our catchall room for the moment!

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We finally feel settled in and are really enjoying home ownership...even with all the new responsibilities that come with that!! :-)

::GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN::

THIS is what goes on at our house a lot of the time!!

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What would we do without this little lady who, despite her issues with throwing fits right now, brings soooooo much light, life and love into our home and family!

We love you Alexa!!

...:::Payton: 13 Months:::...

On Saturday, May 29th, Miss Payton turned 13 Months Old!!

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What a BIG girl we have on our hands now! May was a huge month for her! We started off the month with her 1 year well baby check up on May 3rd. Her stats:

21.8 lbs (50th percentile)

28 3/4" (50th percentile)

According to her stats, she's right at average but Payton is ANYTHING but average! She's our little sweetheart and we just love her way too much!! :-)

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*She stood up unassisted - May 7th

*She took 3-4 steps on her own - May 15th

*She took multiple steps on her own - May 17th

*AND SHE'S WALKING!!!! - May 19th

*She stood up to walk unassisted - May 22nd

*She says: "Yay", "tane too" (thank you), "dis" (this) and babbles non-stop

*She points to everything she wants and shakes her head "no" vehemently when she doesn't want something!!

*She got the stomach flu - May 16th and it seemed to last FOREVER!

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She's just our little peanut and we can't get enough of her. Her little BIG personality is sure starting to shine through and we love what she adds to our family. We really couldn't imagine life without her!

..::Family Pictures::..

The week before we left Louisville, my wonderfully talented friend, Amanda, took our family pictures. We're sad our own personal photographer lives so far away now!! :-(

I love LOVE them Amanda, thank you soooo soooo much!

And since it was recently Payton's first birthday, Amanda took her one year pictures as well! What a cutie we have! Happy First Birthday sweet Payton!!