Love her forever....

I have never been in love with reading.While in school I would read books because we had to. As an adult I only read on occasions on the beach or at the pool. I felt I never had time to read a 500 page novel, way to busy to waste my time reading. Reading made me sleepy anyways and I need to focus on cooking, cleaning and laundry.

Boy oh Boy!  My aspect on reading has changed in the past couple of months. Payton is in love with books. It's a good thing she likes books because she has a small library book collection in her room. There is one in particular that she loves, and has to have read to her every night.

It is titled   "LOVE YOU FOREVER".

The first time I read her this book I cried. I thought it was very fitting to read for a bedtime book.

Since moving her into a toddler bed I  read her a bedtime story until she falls asleep.

She always request, "back and forth, back and forth" as she calls it. I try to fit in another book to change things up but she always wants to end on "back and forth, back and forth". She can practically read the book to me now because she knows the book word for word. 

Andy gets to read her the "Dr. Seuss's A-B-C"  and I end it with the calmer night time read. I love this one on one time with her. She is growing at such a fast pace. I see that all the time I have with her is precious and I am enjoying every minute of it. Even if that means reading, which I do enjoy now!

What is you or your child's favorite bedtime book? Please share!

Tip for you...

When Andy and I got married we bought a few house plants to fill the living room. I thought to myself...these will be our house pets/trial kids, if I can keep these alive I'm doing good! Well almost 5 years later they are still alive and I am proud to say they have grown to strong beautiful house plants.

Since becoming a Mom I would find myself forgetting about my plants...So here is what I have done to keep my plants well watered.

We go through juice and milk like it is going out of style. Every time I pour the last bit of juice or milk I rinse the container and use it to water all my plants. It's a easy reminder to me to water my beloved plants. So I hope to keep them around (and Andy too!) for 50 more years!

BORN WITH A BOW IN HER HAIR.

While pregnant with Payton I made many comments about my hopes for her having hair. I had terrible heart burn and I was hoping my pain was hair's sake. I would say to many of my friends "I bet with my hair and Andy's hair, our little girl will have crazy thick hair!" Boy was I right! She was born with thick brown naturally highlighted hair. The most hair I have ever seen on a new born! She had hair like me and Andy, thick thick hair! Now I thought, what do I do with all this hair?

So her first hair style was a Mohawk. Definitely not my idea. I guess the nursery nurses thought it was a great hair do for a newborn with a years worth of hair, but it didn't work for me at all. So I was happy to brush her hair for the first time and fix it with a bow.

So from this day forward she had a bow in her hair.... so as you can imagine we have a huge collection of hair bows. In the 2 years she has been here I bet we have accumulated around 100 bows. No joke!

So now that I know how to fix her hair, now what do I do with all these hair bows?

I was on a mission to organize the hair bows and free up my drawer space. I was introduced to Craftgawker app on iphone by my sister and and I found a way to make a wreath using items I already had.

Fabric, Scissors, and a coat hanger.

(things I am sure you all have laying around the house)

To get started you take the coat hanger and shape it into a circle.

 Then cut or rip your fabric in a 2" x 5" strip.

 Then tie and knot the fabric strip around your hanger, going around the entire hanger.

Its really easy and doesn't take much time to make. Its a great home for all of Payton's hair bows.

"THE HAIR BOW WREATH"

It now hangs in Payton's closet, all the hair bows are neatly arranged and easily seen and near the clothes so when picking out her outfit we can grab a bow too!

I have also made wreath to hang for July and in Payton's room for decoration.

 Now that Payton is two years old, I no longer find myself asking, "What do I do with her hair". I just get in and get the job done. You can set and ponder with a anxious rambunctious two year old. She has had many hair styles in her two years of life, never again will a Mohawk be in the line up!

The Fourth of July!!

Usually on the fourth of July the girls ( Mom, Kirstin, Payton, Erin and I ) load up and go shopping. That had been the tradition for a couple years now. Shopping is really not the same when you have a little one. Payton has never been the calm, quite, sit still kind of shopper, she is more of the touch and see type. So shopping with her is a rarity with her! I keep hoping that one day she will be the calm quite layed back type of shopper but I have to realize she is just two and I'm sure one day her love for shopping with come through! So needless to say our traditional shopping has been postponed. I always thought retail therapy was my therapy of choice but there is no better therapy for relaxation than poolside therapy so we decided to spend our fourth of July at the pool with the family.

So you can imagine that when I woke up Monday to see the dark rain clouds filling the sky I was so let down!  We kept watching the weather channel to find some ray of hope that it would turn out to be a pool day! So instead of wasting our entire morning pouting over the rain drops we decided to do some crafts to keep our mind off the delayed swim. My mom had a flower arrangement project she had been wanting to do so I thought I would share how we spent the first half of our gloomy 4th of July Morning.

You will need: 1 bag of lemons, Fresh cut flowers, glass pitcher and a vase to fit inside the pitcher.

Cut the lemons, not too thin that you can see through the lemon but not too thick.

Two bouquet bundles of flowers.



Place the lemons around the outer part of the pitcher in between the pitcher and glass



Fill up the lemons to the top of the pitcher then arrange the flowers. Pour water over the flowers and the lemons. Ta-da you have a pretty arrangement that will brighten up any area.

After studying the weather pattern once again,  we knew the rain would be lingering for a couple more hours so on to our next project....baking sugar cookies. Kirstin got Payton involved in this one, Payton loves to help out in the kitchen, especially when there is icing involved.






Looks like I may have a cake decorating helper in the future.

We were very proud of our patriotic sugar cookies!



The cookies were done...the sun was shining and it was POOL TIME! HOORAY!

We enjoyed the pool for most of the afternoon. Payton played with Pops most of the time jumping in the pool constantly. Then she took a little time to relax with Mimma.

She kept us entertained, she is quite the comedian.

The afternoon turned out to be fun filled and pretty, nothing like I thought it would be after seeing the gloomy clouds earlier that morning. Then it was on to food, family time and fireworks.

We ended the night laying poolside watching an amazing display of fireworks!

I can hardly wait for next year's fourth of July events already.

  Hope you had a Happy 4th of July too!

Independence Day Celebration...Day One!

July 4th has always been a great day to spend time with family.Traditional parades and fireworks displays and BBQ. This year the fourth of July fell on a long weekend which gave us two days to celebrate our Independence. There is no better way than to celebrate than to do it two days in a row. So we put on our red, white and blue and celebrated!

Sunday we went to early mass, Kendall Marie was baptized and we had an excellent brunch with the family. So glad to share in Eric and Alina's special day.    Next stop was the Fancy Farm parade.

We all gathered at grandmother Ann's house, bags in hand ready to brave the hottest day of summer to scramble over the parade candy and treats.



Payton & Anna ready for the parade to start.





Payton Enjoying her 3rd Fancy Farm 4th of July Parade.



 Two days prior to the parade Andy & I told Payton that we would be going to a parade and that she will have to catch candy and fill up her bag full of candy and treats. She was excited about the parade!

So Sunday morning (the day of the parade) she woke up and the first word that came from her mouth was "Parade".

Did I mention this was at 5:00 am! Yes, 5:00 am! She was ready for the candy catching challenge!

Payton was so happy at the parade. She loves being aroung people, and she loves Candy so she was in heaven!

 Te last float was Mickey Mouse and she started singing & dancing to "Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog".

Day 1 of our Independence Day celebrations was in the books and marked sucessful!

Ready for day two! July 4th!!

Cooking with the sweetest thing you can have in the kitchen.................Payton Ann

Since finding out Payton has food allergies we have had to make a few changes to the way we eat or what we can even have in the pantry. Which can be hard to change after 28 years of living with all the foods choices you can desire. 

 When we were told Payton was highly allergic to eggs and nuts I was beside myself. I blamed myself at first-Was it because I ate the wrong things while nursing or we maybe because we introduced her to the foods at too early of age? No, No, No  The doctors cant pinpoint why. Why Payton is with 1.1 percent of the population that has a nut allergy. So I just have to live in some fear that she may just pick up that nutty dessert or candy bar and go into Anaphalaxis and stop breathing! To lighten my fears we carry around two epinephrine auto-injector (epi-pens) and hope and pray we never ever have to use them!!

Not only am I terrified that she will a reaction to eggs and nuts and that we will eventually have to rush her to the E.R because she has stopped breathing. I am very saddened, now she can't enjoy the great foods with these two ingredients in them. Which is quit a bit if you set and think about it. So we try to enjoy what we can and leave eggs and nuts aside!

So today we made rice krispie treats...FREE of EGGS and NUTS and still delicious!!

We made it a learning activity, she counted the marshmellows.

she could hardly resist sticking the gooey spoonful into her mouth!

 













Butter the dish so they dont stick!



She sure didnt like this messy hands after buttering the pan.





the best part is licking the spoon!!
Another one of the things she can't do with cake batter's and cookie doughs because they contain eggs.

Ready to eat the yummy treats!

I love cooking with my sweetie! One day I hope she passes that on to her child too!

Make my day better pleeeassee!!

On Saturdays I get up and get ready for the dreadful day at work. Work is not only work (YUCK) but it is a day away from my husband and daughter who are usually at home awaiting my arrival from the minute they wake up. Andy knows how bad I hate it and how bad I had rather be at home with them.  So to brighten up my day he usually send me picture for approval of  the outfit (or hat) he has on Payton or a thumbs up to his hair dressing attempts with our daughters long curly mane. Sometimes I approve and applaud his great daddy skills and sometime I think "what was he thinking?".

 Today I was surprised with a video of Payton dancing to "Shake it for me girl". She has great dancing skills and it was just what I needed to make my day better. If  I can't be with her I can at least get a glimpse of what she is doing. I am so grateful for technology.

  

I love getting these pictures and now video's, it usually makes me burst out in laughter or smile from ear to ear, but today it did a little more. It actually made me want to dance, laugh and smile all at once. Not only did it make me happy but sad at the same time, my day now seem even longer because  I had over 9 hours to wait to see my little dancing baby girl in person. Just some of the pain a working mom has to endure.

I hope you all enjoy this video as much as I did! I hope this brought a smile to your face and joy to your heart. Enjoy your Saturday with your family and don't take a day for granted!