Do they look alike??

It's so hard for me to tell if they look alike......

Here's Park-man at about 2 months old...

Here's baby PayPay just a few days ago (at about 9 weeks old)...

What do you think??

P.S. I can't believe I am looking back at Parker's baby pictures... time sure does fly.

Parker's growing up!

No.. he's not potty-trained yet.

BUT. He will be sleeping in his new big, BIG boy bed (his big boy bed is the bed that Kyle made him I showed you here) very soon.

One of Parker's Christmas presents from his Nanna and Doc was new bedding for his bunkbed! Poor kid... his mama took FOREVER to find the PERFECT bedding. BUT, I'm so glad I did... I think we are all very happy with what we found.

Close-up of his cute Alphabet sheets!

The full view.

(Keepin' it real... this is "neatly made" in our house.. we are usually doing well to have the blankets off the floor... 8I think we only make our beds when we have visitors. Which isn't really keepin' it real I guess... I'm guilty of wanting people to think I am a tidy person, and I am SO not. So, now if you come over to my house and see beds neatly made, you'll know better.)

Back to the point.

I knew I wanted to find a comforter that would "grow" with him and last longer than his toddler years. I looked EVERYWHERE... and FINALLY found one (online) at the Land of Nod. The green one was RANDOMLY $40 cheaper than normal.. It's washable and can also be used as a duvet insert! Score!

I also knew I wanted printed sheets since the comforter was a solid color... I kept googling (that's a real word.) kids' sheet sets, and found the Alphabet set on Amazon for $67. What?? I LOVED the print but didn't like the price. Bummer. BUT. After a quick google search for alphabet sheet sets I found THE EXACT SAME SET at Target. On Sale. For $25. How 'bout a WHOOP WHOOP! I'm not the only one excited... look at this face:

I'm not even kidding, this kid doesn't want to leave his new bed! He has already spent so much time just laying on his belly trying to find his favorite letters (O, W, and M... he knows them all, but ALWAYS points those three out...)!

All in all, I'm very pleased with what we found, and we have a little guy that can't wait for us to move his new bed into his room! Yay!

And since I can't leave her out of the post...

Cutie-patootie.

We love this happy little girl! She is currently trying so hard to get her way.. she will cry her sweet little, pitiful cry... and as soon as she sees us, she gives us the BIGGEST smile! It works a lot of the time because I can hardly leave her cute baby grin!

Ok, that's all. We've gotta get back to our letter search on the alphabet sheets! :)

Little Moments...

Just a little update.. before I forget about these little moments!

Papa came over recently! One of my dad's newer hobbies is making bread. Specifically, Our Best Bites' Focaccia Bread. If you've never made focaccia (or any bread for that matter), you HAVE to give this recipe a try! It's SO STINKIN' EASY. It's almost impossible to mess up! And if you like Macaroni Grill's bread, this is 10 times better! Seriously. OK, back the the pics...

My dad was teaching the kids how to make the bread... which in Papa's eyes means dipping fingers in EVERYTHING to taste it. Sugar, salt, oil, flour... needless to say, the boys LOVED it!

"What can we dip our fingers in next...?"

Family resting time...

Baby girl getting bundled up for a walk! Isn't her owl hat adorable?? Thanks, Leah!

Goin' for a walk!

In other news... I may or may not be "training" for the Warrior Dash 2012. I may or may not be extremely PUMPED about doing it. I may or may not have ever done anything like this before. I may or may not LOVE watching shows like the Real World/Road Rules Challenges and wonder if I would be able to do some of the physical challenges.. This may or may not be like a dream come true... Ok, enough of that.

That's life for now. BYE!

A Dress for Payton!

Making clothes for baby girls is so much fun! Here's the first "dress" I made for her:

I found this old tunic-type shirt in my closet (which I had previously tried to turn into drapey-cardigan type thing... fail.), and the material was still in great shape! It's a very light, knit material with a satin sash that I knew I could put to good use! All I did was use the bottom section of the shirt and sewed it into a wide tube. I folded down the top (keeping the bottom hem), made a small tube around the waist, and put in a piece of elastic that I measured around her waist. Once I sewed the elastic in, all I had to do was combine the two pieces of the sash and tie it aroung the waist of the skirt. I paired it with a plain long-sleeved onesie to make it look like a dress, and that's it! I may eventually add something fun to her onesie, but for now here's the finished product:

My happy girl! She's so sweet to let me dress her up! I made two little rosettes and attached them to a little piece of elastic for her headband and cut off the foot portion of two of my knee-high socks for her baby legs. How about a free outfit?? :) I love shopping in my closet!

A close-up of her sweet chunky face. Love it!

My babies! Parker was so, so sweet to sit with his sissy.. these moments are very rare!

Payton and Parker.

Looking forward to more sewing adventures for my little girl!

Life lately...

It's been awhile since I posted last... life has been so busy for our family! Duh... I wouldn't change it for anything, though. We LOVE our little PayPay... late nights, leaky diapers, spit-up galore, and all! There have already been little challenges... like I have no idea how to take a 2-year-old and an infant into Wal-Mart by myself without having a panic attack (it hasn't happened yet... I just know that is BOUND to be the outcome...) I also haven't established a good schedule for us during the day... this results in Parker going a little longer than he needs to without a bath... ok, include me in that one too... just WARN ME before you want to come over so I can at least put a hat on and put some body spray on! Maybe that was t.m.i... anyway, the challenge is fun so far! Here are a few of the fun moments:

Payton's first real bath! Her cord took FOREVER to fall off so her first bath was at 3 1/2 to 4 weeks old.

Daddy attempting to entertain Parker! :)

My sweet Mother-in-law came to stay with us while Kyle and his dad went duck hunting for Kyle's birthday! Can you tell we had a good time?? :) I have the best mother- and father-in-law you could ever ask for! We always look forward to their visits!

Nanna and Payton playing Patty-cake! She was smiling like crazy!

We've been getting Cabin Fever A LOT lately... so we do a lot of jumping around the house...

...and more jumping...

...and even more jumping!

That is one cute kid! My Parker-man has been such a good big bro!

While Kyle's mom was here we decided to have a photo shoot with Payton! :) I am by no means a photographer and never will be... but we caught her looking so cute! So just excuse the photo quality!

Look at my big girl!! Doesn't she look so old here?? She's been holding her head up since the day she was born!

Payton's Mammy (my mom) gave her that sweet bracelet! I LOVE it!

Payton and the boa! You can't get much more girly than that!

Oh! I actually caught him in the bath! :) My mohawk boy.

Parker and Mommy being crazy!

Playing dress-up is fun even at 6 weeks old! :)

One of the headbands I made for Payton!

Kyle with his babies on his birthday! :) The best Daddy in the world! This is the only picture we got on Kyle's birthday! I'm glad it's a good one!!

Long enough post!! I hope to post a sewing/crafty post soon! I have a few headband ideas and a dress for Payton brewing! Stay tuned...

{Apple Pickin'}

Fall is such an amazing time of year! Pumpkins, indian corn, orange leaves, and APPLES. When we were younger and lived in California, my family would go to Apple Hill EVERY year to see the beautiful orchards, see how cider is made, and most importantly eat caramel apples! :) I love looking back on old memories... even more than that, though, I LOVE making new memories! That's exactly what we got to do recently...

Two days a week Kyle wakes up extra early for Bible studies, and he is usually gone before Parker and I are even awake. On one such morning last week, I get a text saying, "Get up and get ready." Ok, I need more details than that... so I just waited until Kyle got home. I'm very compliant. Kyle proceeds to tell me that he is changing and he's picking out clothes for both Parker and me. Umm... huh? Kyle's concern for particular clothing is usually ZERO, so I knew something was up. Next thing I know, I hear him call from the closet saying, "I need your help.. is this maternity??" He picked out a plaid button-up that would currently cover just my back... poor guy, he was trying... the story proceeds with Kyle pulling shirt after shirt out of the closet and with me saying, "Are you KIDDING?? I don't want to wear that... I just want you to tell me what the heck we're doing!!" I wasn't very nice. Somewhere in there he had changed in to a plaid shirt and jeans and dressed Parker in the same.. he finally gave in and told me that we NEEDED to wear plaid shirts and jeans because we were going to pick apples! :) After I gave him SUCH a hard time.. I felt bad. BUT, I was so excited!! And we knew Parker would have a blast. So our apple picking journey began: *Warning: Too. Many. Pictures. Proceed at your own risk!*

All trips start with a necessary re-tying of the shoes.. even double-knotted they seem to just come undone!

Off we went with bucket in hand! I loved that it was a metal pail and not a bag... I felt like it was a little more authentic!

Walking to the orchards. It was a beautiful day!

Our first apple picked by Park-man! He was so proud!

He literally THREW every. single. apple. into the bucket. It was so worth it, though. Bruised apples and all!

Daddy would find the perfect apples, point them out to Parker, and then Parker would pick them for us!

Proud of another apple!

He picked almost every single one! He did a great job!

Trying to find a good one.

Daddy showing him which one to pick.

There was a tiny little "pond" by the barn at the farm we went to with a few fish in it and little creature statues all around it. Parker was absolutely FASCINATED with them!

He loved the Aggi-gator.

Petting the turtle.

Trying to reach the frog.

At the end of our visit, we enjoyed a snack together outside in the amazing weather.

Just thought this one was cute.

We can't wait to go again! This particular farm also had muscadine grapes and peaches and nectarines in the spring! We will definitely make a trip out there for peaches next year!

Now we can't wait for more fall adventures! Hopefully pumpkin pickin' will be next! :)

My growing boy...

This little guy is growing. And growing. And growing. I can hardly keep up with him! I thought it had to do with the little one inside of me, but Parker's most recent doctor's appointment confirmed my suspicion... he is now in the 101st percentile for weight and 92nd for height. Yes, you read that right. This kid is going to make my arms fall off... poor Payton probably wonders what I'm trying to do to her when I hold Park-man! Thank goodness Parker likes to run and play so my arms (and Payton!) get a break. Here's what he's been up to lately...

Parker LOVES football. He LOVES to wear his jersey. He LOVES watching it with Daddy on Saturdays (and Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and high school football on Fridays... ). With 2 boys and 1 girl in the house right now, I'm outnumbered. But not for long!!! Let's just hope Payton likes to watch HGTV... :)

Parker cheesin'. Can you tell he likes to show off for the camera??

Yes, he's sitting on the toilet. No, he's not potty-trained yet. He just randomly wanted to sit on the potty and actually went!! He's had no more interest since, but I guess that's moving in the right direction! Let's just say I was pretty proud of my big boy!

Playing Ring-around-the-rosy at the park on a beautiful day!

Another day at the park! We took a picnic lunch one day recently and had SO much fun! Hasn't the weather been AMAZING?!

Parker's been really good at having conversations on the phone recently! He always tilts his head to the side like this... he's pretty funny to watch and listen to!

Another cheese-ball face.

Our Park-man is growing up! Along with getting bigger, he's learned SO much in the past few months. He surprises us almost daily with a new word or phrase, and we are LOVING being able to carry on actual conversations! He sings a lot, jumps a lot, dances a lot, falls down after jumping and dancing a lot, plays ball a lot (any kind)... all of that to say, we are busy with this little guy. And we can't wait to add another to the mix!! :)