Payten LOVES water

Our little Payten loves to play in the water all the time. Anything that has to do with water...Payten is in!! Everytime we pass the Water Park entrance she starts saying, "water park, water park". (even though you can't even see the water park from the road b/c it is hidden by trees, she still knows where you are supposed to turn. I literally have to drag her out of the bath tub in fear that she is going to turn in to a prune. :) Below are some pics we took last Monday at the Water Park. We have so much fun there. I have a really good friend that I met at the gym, and she has two girls around the same age as Payten. We get Chick-Fil-A and then head to play in the water....typically every Friday, you will find us there. But last Monday Daddy took off work so we spent a little family time basking in the sun. (trying to get a base tan so we don't fry in Mexico!!) Payten has now learned to swim. (well with her floaties on) She is so brave and will jump off the side of the pool and into the water. She also is an expert in kicking like a frog and the breast stroke....seriously, i am not joking!!! She is so much fun to be around. She is my little buddy. Oh ya, one of the pics is Payten holding Nala for the first time. She has been trying to pick her up since she could walk. It is so entertaining to watch them play together. They have a love/hate relationship...Payten will chase her around and Nala will finally give in and let Payten pick her up....Nala just takes is so well, although she lets out an ocassional cry for help. :) Work is going really well. I love both of my jobs!!! I am going to get my personal training certificate in September and then will be able to charge a lot more for my services!! :) I have always loved being in the gym, so I am going to take the plunge and get certified. I am also a Children's Coordinator at our church. I basically oversee what is going on, answer any questions parents might have, check in new babies and toddlers, and update the rosters as well as headcounts at the end of Sunday School and "Big" church. It is a lot of work and always extra busy since we have thousands of members, but I love it and believe that God got me that job....I was not even looking for it. Oh ya, I am also on the Leadership team for MOPS. I am excited to meet other moms and get to know women from my church and learn from them. It is encouraging to meet other women who love the Lord....it encourages and inspires me to be a better wife and mother. I am so excited to come back to Oklahoma in less than two weeks. Not only is it Payten's 2nd birthday, but we will get to meet Baby Kennedi for the first time!!!! We are so excited to meet her. We are really looking forward to spending time with everyone.... it is so hard to believe that we have lived in Texas for 6 months now. It has gone by so fast.... We had Scott, Bethany, Wes, Allison, Mike and Tracy over for dinner last Friday night. We had such a great time and it felt like we were back in Bartlesville. We grilled out and played games....it's pretty crazy that four couples are already in Texas from B-ville. I wonder who will be next??? :) I have to admit....I LOVE TEXAS. It is very kid friendly and there is always something to do. I would reccommend this place to anyone!!!!!!! The people are great, the grocery stores are fabulous (Kroger and HEB), Target is my second home, (I got in trouble this month for spending way toooo much there...haha), the community is very clean and beautiful, and the Water park/Beach Club is Payten's dream come true!!! (and mine too.) Okay, I think I have succeeded the maximum amount of words for tonight.. hope no one gets bored with my novel! :)

Fun at the Zoo

After spending 3 hours at the zoo, I have come to the conclusion that ALL zoo animals are severly depressed!! :) Seriously, all the animals were hidden in a corner fast asleep. They are sleeping because they are bored, hot and in a 10x10 room and feel extremely cramped. Okay enough about that....I just feel bad for all the animals that are stuck and will never be able to run free. :) Other than that, Payten LOVED the zoo. Her favorite animals were the giraffe and the elephants. We got to watch the elephants get their daily bath. She sat there the whole time, wided-eyed and enjoying every minute of it. Since she has a stuffed giraffe that she sleeps with every night, she was excited to watch the giraffes play. She calls them "raffs". It was extremely hot, but that did not seem to slow her down. She was pretty upset when we had to leave. We had a great time... Payten's new favorite thing is Finding Nemo. She has been watching it everyday. I am amazed at how long she will sit in front of the t.v. while Nemo is on. She will go and get Finding Nemo out of the DVD rack, get the DVD out of the case and try to stick it in the DVD player. She will practically beg for one of us to put it on for her. This little girl loves animals and baby dolls. It is so neat to watch her personality grow as well as her interests. We were laughing at how long the giraffes neck was. Pretty funny!!?? haha ( I guess that's pretty funny to a two year old.) She really enjoyed the petting zoo. She kept trying to brush their fur even though they were trying to eat.

My Cutie Pie!!!

Her new favorite thing is "piggies". She loves to put her hair into piggy tailes. She is 100% girl. She also loves shoes and purses!!! She will tell you what "shews" she wants to wear. If you look closely in the pictures you will notice her butterfly shoes. Yep... she picked these out at Target. We had to put them on immediately after we bought them. She loves to look at her feet when she walks in them. So adorable!! She also loves "puses". Today we were in Dillard's looking at some bags and she had 5 purses around her arms. She didn't like it one bit when mom and I took them away from her. She also LOVES the Water Park!!! Mom and I took her to the Water Park a couple days ago and she was in Heaven the whole time we were there. She played in the kiddy pool and splashed around in the sprinklers. This place is amazing. It is like a mini Big Splash two miles from our house!!! She didn't understand why we had to leave the Water Park. She loves to play in the water... mom and I would take turns swimming with her in the big kid pool. She likes to kick her legs and "pretend" she is swimming all by herself. :) I can't believe how grown up she looks in these pictures. It makes me sad to think that almost two years of her life has past by sooooo quickly. If you ask her how old she is, she will respond by saying, "two" and she will hold up two fingers!!! We have been practing a lot on that, so she is a little bit ahead of schedule. Thank you Lord for a healthy, happy baby girl!!!

My Two Favorite People

I forgot to add this to the new blog pics below. I couldn't pass this picture up. It is just too cute! We were in the study downloading songs for my MP3 player and I randomly got a few really good pictures of Daddy and Payten. She was smiling so good for the camera. This picture makes my heart want to melt. I am so blessed to have such wonderul people in my life. Matt, if you read this....I just want you to know how wonderful of a Dad you are to Payten. You are so loving and patient with her. It is soo cute to see you guys play chase together. She loves you so much. I do too!

Mother's Day 2007

Here are some pictures that were taken on Mother's Day. Mike and Jan came to visit over the weekend. We had a wonderful time. Friday night we went and ate at Babbin's. It is sooo yummy. I branched out and had Gruper. (I hope I spelled that right.) It's a certain type of fish. It was pretty good. I was proud of myself for not ordering chicken strips. :) Today Jan and I went to this place called Charming Charlie's. It has great jewerly and purses. Well, Payten found 3 purses she just loved and lots of braclets she couldn't put down. She is 100% girl. It is sooo cute to see her walking around with a handbag around her arm. Little kids are sponges soaking up everything they see around them. Tonight we were watching American Idol and I was sitting on the floor with a blanket around my legs leaning against the couch. Next thing I know here comes Paytie with a blanket. She sits down next to me, wraps the blanket around her legs, and leans up against the couch. Then she just sits there and watches American Idol with me. It was sooo hard not to laugh at her. She is constantly watching me... that is a scary thought!!! :) Payten didn't want to see her Grandpa and Grandma leave. She doesn't understand why they come to visit and then have to leave. She is such a social bug. I think this is the cutest picture ever. My two favorite people in the whole world!

Minnesota Fun!!!

Minnesota was lots of fun. Okay, so the first day of the trip was an absolute nightmare!! The flights were not looking good coming out of Houston, so Payten and I flew to Tulsa. (We first had to get out of Dallas!!!) Our flight from Houston to Dallas went smooth. After we landed we headed to catch our next flight into Tulsa. We boarded the plane and I actually got Payten to sleep. I was sooo amazed. I was thinking in my head...."This is going to be a great flight. Payten is sleeping and I can relax." Well, the captain came on and said they couldn't get the door shut, so we had to get on another plane. Well that took a couple hours. Then we got on another plane and what next....? Weather!!! :) We got on the plane and then got right off again. By this time I just had to laugh and realize that God is in control of this situation. :) Finally we got to take off even though it was still storming and the flight was anything but smooth. At least we made it to Tulsa....a little late, but better late than never, right? Enough about the traveling....the trip was so much fun. We went to the Mall of America and stayed at the biggest indoor water park/hotel in America. We shopped till we dropped and ate way too much. The water park was amazing. I got to surf...and Matt and I enjoyed the really fast body tubes. It was this 10 story tube that shot you all the way down into the water. I think I blacked out once because I was going so fast I couldn't see a thing!! We all got to ride a family tube ride that was a little less exciting. Paytie rode it too and her eyes were HUGE. She was holding on and didn't know whether to laugh or scream!!! Mom and I enjoyed the hot tub. It was really pretty and very relaxing!!! Payten enjoyed the kiddie section of the water park and the rides at the mall. Her favorite rides were the hot air balloon ride, the camp bus ride, and the the horse ride. (That's what she calls it) She did not want to get off the rides. One of the pictures below shows me trying to pull her away from a ride. She didn't know what to think about all the excitement. My dad took Paytie and I to the Underwater World. All Payten could talk about was the fish or "sish". She was in awe of all the different kinds of fish that were swimming all around her. Little kids are amused by the littliest things. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great trip and lots of goodies!! We had such a wonderful time and we are glad we got to spend time with you and make some great memories!!!

More Minnesota Fun...

Family Outing!!!

Today we had our first family outing to the ocean!! We went to the Kema Boardwalk by Galveston. The weather was perfect today and the ocean was sooooo pretty! It was the first time Paytie has ever seen the ocean and let me tell you, she loved it!!! All she could talk about was the water and the birds that were flying around. She points and yells, "bir...bir". (She doesn't put the d sound on the end of the word.) We ate dinner at Saltgrass and had an ocean front view. Then we walked around the pier and ate Marble Slab ice cream. There was a band playing so the atmosphere was really nice. On the way home we got to drive by Nasa. It was pretty neat looking. I tried to talk Matt into moving closer to the ocean so Paytie and I could play in the water all day, but he didn't think it was too good of an idea. :) Daddy and Payten were racing on the pier. She thought that was the funnest thing ever. I must say my daughter is a really fast runner!!!! :) She runs everywhere she goes. I just keep praying that she doesn't fall and bang up her knees! She only knows one speed!!! Payten was not too fond of this shark. She was holding onto me for dear life!! :)