Happy Easter

We had a very relaxing Easter Weekend. We played outside a lot of the time. Payten is really getting into riding her jeep. She is an expert driver now. It took her a long time to figure out how to steer the wheel. Now she is a pro. She just takes off....there is hardly any traffic on our rode so it is nice that she can drive around in the street. Easter day we hid Easter eggs in the back yard. We filled all the eggs with Starburst jelly beans. Payten was really excited to see what was inside of the eggs. She loves her Easter basket too. She has been taking it with her everywhere. She had so much fun finding the eggs in the back yard. We have about 50 Easter eggs strung around our house. She has been enjoying playing with them. After we played outside for a couple hours I started feeling sick to my stomach. Matt had the stomach virus last weekend and I thought that I was lucky enough to not catch it....well I guess I wasn't that lucky! I threw up about 15 times yesterday and then into last night. I thought I wasn't going to make it! :) Praise the Lord I got through....I feel better. My stomach still aches a little bit. Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow feeling 100%. There is nothing worse then having a temperature and feeling achy all over. I hope everyone had a better Easter day than I did!! Here is a picture of Payten and Daddy. Payten is soooo blessed to have a Daddy like Matt. Everyday Payten always asks for her Daddy and is so excited to see him when he comes home. When I was sick he entertained her the entire day and they slept together upstairs in the game room while I was downstairs not feeling so well. :) Matt is always so patient and loving to her. Thanks Matt for being such a wonderful Dad.

Saturday night we all got dressed up and went to the Easter service at Second Baptist Church. It was so nice to actually go to a church service. Since I work at the church on Sundays I don't get to go to a church service. I really enjoyed sitting next to Matt and listening to a really good message. Payten was so excited to wear her Easter dress. She begs me all the time to wear it. She didn't want to take it off that evening. I think she would live it the dress if I would let her. She is so funny. The other night we kissed her good night and closed the door. We heard her making noise....Matt went down stairs to see what she was up too.....she was in her closet taking all her clothes off of the hangers and playing dress up. The next morning she came and woke me up and she had a skirt on over her pj's. She is constantly getting into my jewerly and makeup ALL the time. She is a true girly girl!

My Little Sunshine

It has been a while since I have updated my blog. Things have been going really well these past couple weeks.......although Payten has decided she wants to throw some MAJOR fits just to test my patience.... and Matt's too! We have been very relaxed in our schedule and I can definitely tell it throws her off. The past couple days we got her on a rountine again and I can already see a huge change in her behavior. What a difference a little routine can make!!!!! We have been enjoying the nice weather by playing outside a lot, going to the park and taking walks around the neighborhood. I can't wait for the pools to open up so we can go swimming everyday!!! (well almost everyday.) I am anxious to see if she can swim all by herself. One of the last times we went to the pool last summer she swam all by herself, without floaties, and kept her head above water for over a minute. I hope she will catch on and learn to be a really good swimmer! Grandma Jan and Papa Mike came to visit us. Jan helped us plant flowers one day.... and Payten got a special flower just for her. The next day she decided to pick the flower and then she got really upset because she couldn't put the flower back on the stem......I promised her that a new flower would start to grow soon and within two days a new Daisy started to grow. She loves to look at the flowers that we planted. Thanks Grandma Jan for helping us..... it was nice to have someone helping me that knew what they were doing. :)

While we were planting flowers my next door neighbor found an unexpected visitor in his garage. He didn't want to kill the snake and I knew I wasn't going to do it so Jan volunteered herself and killed the snake with a shovel. I got some great pictures but I figured I would need Jan's permission first to post them. :) All the neighborhood kids came out to see what was going on. The kiddos ended up disecting the snake for atleast an hour. Payten was sooooooo interested in what was going on. Why are kids soooo fascinated with this kind of stuff? Anyway....it was a very entertaining afternoon. Below are some of the faces I captured while all this was going on. This face is Payten's, "Don't touch me" face.....she has soooo many facial expressions. I was chasing her around the house with the camera and she let me know she was not in the mood to smile. "Leave me alone" she says! :)

Trip to Oklahoma

Last weekend we made a trip back to Oklahoma. We had so much fun seeing everyone and visiting!!! Thanks Brooke for the pictures. I went off and left my camera, so I didn't get to take any pictures. Friday Payten and I hung out with my parents. We ate pizza and played cards all night. Sat. morning we got up and went and had breakfast with Memaw and Papaw. By the way Memaw, those pancakes were soooo yummy! After breakfast Memaw took me shopping for my birthday. Thanks Memaw for everything!!! :) Saturday night we went to Matt's grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary. It was so much fun to get dressed up for the night and hang out with the gang. Payten really enjoyed playing with Kennedi. They both looked soooo adorable in their little dresses. Thanks Jan for the dress and bow. Since we have been home, Payten sees the dress in her closet and begs me to let her wear it. I tell her that she has to wait until Easter and then she can wear it whenever she wants. :) Sunday we went over to my parents house and had lunch. Mom made the BEST Chicken and Dumplings. They were soooo yummy. I could have eaten three or four bowls if my stomach would have let me. :) Oh and Chris and Jennifer.... Baby Cole is so precious. He is getting bigger and bigger every day. Cherish every moment because they grow up way too fast! Payten decided that she wanted to have a tea party while we were just sitting at the table. She pretended to make coffee and tea for everyone. Her little imagination is sooo cute these days. I catch her pretending all the time. The other day she wanted me to lay down on the floor and then she put a little white blanket across my chest and she wanted to clean my teeth. She was pretending to be a dentist. It was pretty cute. I have spied on her a couple times while she was prentending to be a ballerina. She will put her little fluffy dress on and then she will put her hands in the air and twirl around in a circle. I will watch her for a while and then when she finally sees me she will act all shy and get a little embarrassed. Thanks everyone for a great trip back. We are so blessed to have such amazing families!!!