Down to the "Nitty Gritty"

Well, I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems that nine months of pregnancy lasts forever when you don't have any kids yet. Well, the second time around just flies right by. I guess the first time I didn't have anything better to do but eat and sleep. Now the second time around I am always busy being a wife and mommy, I don't have time to just sit around and eat bon bons anymore! HAHA! We are now down to the last few weeks and we are getting super excited! We don't really have everything ready yet. Like the baby's room, um yeah, still a mess! We still have a few things that need to be moved out of there and into the basement. Then we need to set up the crib and decorations. I finally did go through all the baby stuff and get everything washed and put away in the dresser and closet. The car seat is ready to go, along with the car seat canopy I made:) I guess if he decided to make an early appearance we could get by. I started to make a rag quilt for him and the sewing machine started acting up. I took it to the repairman and he asked if I was in hurry to get it back. I told him what I was working on and that I had 6 weeks before the due date. I was supposed to get it back that Saturday. Well, repairmen seem to have crazy busy lives too! I just got it back today, a couple weeks late! I should have time to get that project done as long as the old thing decides to cooperate! So all is well and we are just trucking right along. Baby still doesn't have a name just yet. We do have a couple picked out and just aren't sure which to go with yet. We may just have to see him first. Of coarse, Peyton is still hoping to name him Andy from Toy Story. Hate to break Peyton's little heart, but that is not one of the prospects. Here are a couple pics, the first one is at 27 weeks, the second is at 36 weeks, and third the car seat canopy I made.

My sweet little "big boy"

Peyton started preschool a couple of weeks ago. He went to preschool last year as well. Last year he came home most days telling us he played. We rarely could get more out of him about what his class did that day. We put him in for the social aspect, which he did benefit from. Other than that we didn't feel he got much out of going. Maybe that school does more with the four year old class but Jake and I still felt like Peyton needed more of a challenge. So we decided to switch schools for this year. Peyton has learned more in the first few weeks than I think he learned all last year. Peyton gets in the car and immediately starts telling me all the things he did that day and what he learned. We already are loving his new school and are so happy we made the change. This school is much smaller and lots of the kids walk in the door by themselves. Peyton had Mommy or Daddy walk him in the first few times. Then, one morning he said "Mom I want to walk in by myself." I said "Okay, are you sure?" Peyton then replied, "Mom, I still love you. I just want to try it by myself." Well, mommy's heart melted and I had to let my big boy walk in all by himself. Now he prefers to walk by himself every morning :( Mommy is sometimes sad that he is growing up, but I love watching him grow and I love seeing his confidence shine through. Peyton still loves books and he loves to draw and color. We still read books everyday. I am glad that he loves books so much. He is very good at coloring and he really takes his time to stay in the lines. He will sit at the table and color or draw for hours. I will even try to get him to play or watch a movie with me and he tells me he wants to color. Here is one of the many pictures that he has colored. He colored it all by himself without any help, we think it is awesome! We are so proud of our Peyton!

busy summer....

This is what we have been up to all summer. It seems to have been a cram and jam summer trying to get everything done around here. We have done a ton of stuff to our house. We cut a door in downstairs; making a nice walk-out basement, put up a cedar fence, poured a pad for the dog run along with a large nice stamped patio, finished our basement and put in a wood burning fireplace which included getting firewood. (whoo) There were bumps in the road along the way to make things more difficult, it seems things always work out that way. For example right after we got the drywall and paint done in the basement...it flooded. Luckily the water stayed low enough not to damage anything and that was the week before we had the flooring put in. I did not get any pictures since I was home alone on restrictive duty with the pregnancy....I was kind of freaking out trying to get buckets of water and hall them out. Jake was an hour or more away at work and so my wonderful father-in-law came to the rescue helping to suck all the water out with a big shop vac. (pictures was the last thing on my mind) A few days later the patio, stairs and drain got finished so hopefully we shouldn't flood like that ever again. I can't take much credit for any of the work, since being pregnant put a halt to most of the hard labor done around here for me. Jake did most of it and then hired to have help for some when he was too busy at work to get stuff done around here. Anyway, from the pictures you can tell there are still odd and ends to finish to perfect the job but it is so close, I was anxious to take some pics and post. Peyton loved being outside and helping daddy work. Tim and Mara came out for the Rodeo and we had a blast! Grandma and Buggsy made a big dutch-oven breakfast one morning that was delish and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt. We made it out to Grandpa Doug and Grandma Debbie's for a few days too. Peyton loved being outside and he loved the horses and the dogs. Peyton also had fun teasing his grandpa and imitating the way grandpa eats otter pops... he kept us all laughing the whole trip! He was so funny and such a good boy even for the whole drive. He fell on the sidewalk the day before we left and got a nice big raspberry under his eye... ouch :( Jake built some really nice gates for dad and Deb and helped work on their corrals while we were there. We had fun just hanging out and visiting. Peyton was a handsome little ring bearer in Jake's cousins wedding and he was so cute and did such a good job! We also managed to hit some parades and festivities for the holidays and spent a lot of the summer with just our little family. We also got some camping in, some of which was just "us" and some with friends. It was really busy around here, but made for a great summer! I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to spend it with. Here are a few pictures from our summer...