***Just a reminder before we begin: I'm deactivating my facebook and privatizing the blog come SATURDAY night. If you want to be added to the blog list and have NOT given me your email address, message/comment/facebook it to me!
Peyton got a toothbrush from the dentist for his 9-month checkup. He LOVES brushing his teeth and watching us brush ours! Future dentist, maybe? He is a Young.
We took family pictures at the Arboretum with the Tomaka family. It was beautiful AND a lot of fun!
Peyton playing in the grassy field at the Arboretum.
Family picture on the bench. Peyton is such a ham!
After church one Sunday. I think Peyton's face here is priceless.
Grandma and Grandpa Condie and Uncle Seddi came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving!
Note to self: don't play airplane with Peyton after he's just consumed large quantities of food. You might get puked on. Nasty.
After Peyton's bath time during Thanksgiving break. Peyton LOVES his bath time!
Clockwise: Peyton, Unkie Collin ('s butt), Munkie Brady, Aunt Clare and Daniel
Thanksgiving break. I forgot to take pictures of all the awesome food we made. I suck.
For some reason, Peyton likes to lounge at the table like this. Though I wouldn't really call it "lounging," since he's folded in half. Frankly, it doesn't look comfortable at all! Nevertheless, he sat like this for his entire breakfast.
Gross, right? Wanna know what's grosser? This was pulled out of Peyton's mouth. Still grosser: we couldn't find the legs.
I don't know how this creature made it into our apartment and into Peyton's mouth ... and let's be honest, I don't want to know any more of the story than what I've written here.
Such a happy boy!
Rat tail? I loved Peyton's long, curly hair. Dan kept asking me to cut it, but I refused. When it stopped curling at the back and started to look "girly," I finally caved. Now he looks like such a big boy!
Peyton with Great Grandpa Santa!
At Great Grandpa Santa's apartment complex.
Daniel's sugar cookie "masterpiece."
Peyton LOVES dogs. He even says "dog" more than he does "mama." He had so much fun with Shadow in Kansas!
Grandma Nene opening presents.
Daniel striking a Christmas pose.
This is Brady's "man pose" since now he can "smell like a man. man."
Daniel got me beautiful pearl earrings! I love pearls!
Clare got lots of boots and tights for Christmas.
Collin got every sort of toy gun you can imagine.
Brady got a gag gift -- a clown. He's terribly afraid of clowns.
Peyton liked to run off with the wrapping paper more than the gifts ... But by the time we got to El Paso, he had the hang of it. More or less.
Family photo op on Christmas morning.
Peyton had his first candy bar while we were in Kansas. Milky Way. He went NUTS!
Grandpa's usual occupation.
Mmm. Here's a doozy of a story. So we land in El Paso at 11:40 p.m. on the 26th. No bags come out the baggage claim. Neither does our car seat. So we go to find help from United. Huh. No United reps ANYWHERE. For two hours. That's right, we sat there with no way of getting our kiddo home and none of our checked baggage for TWO HOURS before a United rep showed up. Guess what they told us? Go buy a car seat and we'll reimburse you. At 1:30 a.m. So Dan's dad heads out to Walmart and picks one up. Good thing we got it, too, because some idiot left a giant pile of branches in THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY. Oh, and United? No refund for our checked baggage. Nope, just a voucher for the WORST AIRLINE IN THE WORLD. I seriously hate United SO. MUCH. And the voucher wasn't even very much.
After holding Peyton for nearly 5 hours straight (including the layover, flight and United debacle), I had to lay the poor baby down on the airport floor.
This one's for Ross -- Peyton's wearing his Blink 182 onesie!
Playing outside in El Paso.
Such a cutie pie.
The cupboard Peyton ended up pinching his fingers in. I have no idea why he was so obsessed with this cupboard! He is also holding his favorite toy. It plays classical music and he walks around with it everywhere, all day.
Love his little bath robe.
Heading out for a walk!
Playing in the grass on a nice, sunny, warm winter's day!
Okay, okay. So I kind of went on a blogging hiatus. Not because there was nothing to blog about. More because every time I try to sit at the computer, Peyton claws my arms, legs and laptop because he HATES it when the ol' green folding machine with the changing pictures gets more attention than -- shriek -- him.
So here we go again with a massive, way-too-long update.
Let's start at the very beginning (of my camera's memory card). A very good place to start ...
KANSAS TRIP
Peyton and I got to visit my family in Kansas earlier this month! It was a lot of fun. Once again, he was amazing on the plane, both there and back. He slept the whole time! Really, it doesn't get any better than that.
The first day we were there, I went to my little brother Collin's school to watch him sing and to see my old choir teacher, Mr. V. Mr. V, not wanting to feel too old himself when I came to visit, brought along the little girl who played Gretl, my "little sister" (I was Liesl), in The Sound of Music. Only, she wasn't so little anymore. In fact, she was about a head taller than me. And a teenager. And I felt really. Really. REALLY ... old. She was in kindergarten when we did the musical. She was the cutest, sweetest little thing then and she is totally still the cutest, sweetest, not-so-little-anymore thing now.
Then my mom, Peyton and I went to Brady and Clare's musical practice (they're doing The Wizard of Oz). While we were there, we may or may not have put Peyton in one of the band lockers. And he may or may not have enjoyed it. And we may or may not have taken a picture.
Man, that kiddo is CUTE! Am I biased? Absolutely not. ;-)
After visiting the schools, we went to visit GREAT Grandpa Felshaw ...
Uh, mom ... who is this scary old man?
Hmm, lemme get a good look at him ...
Still not warmed up to the place ...
Okay. Now that I've smacked you, we can be friends.
Peyton ... getting into things as usual. Behind him is Great Grandpa's friend, Maezell.
Such a handsome little ham!
The next day, we were invited to go swimming at a friend's house. Me, Clare, Collin, Peyton and my mom went; we had a lot of fun! Peyton LOVES to swim. And splash. And kick. And try to drink the water.
Exhibit A: Peyton loves to splash
Below is a video of Peyton swimming. He loves to be passed from one person to another. Surprisingly, he also loves it when he goes under the water, too!
I did Clare's hair and makeup for a Halloween dance. She was a Greek goddess. She looked so pretty! Of course, she ALWAYS looks pretty, so that's no surprise.
Peyton tried out the jumper while we were there, too. I don't think he quite grasped the concept of it ... Basically, he'd try to walk somewhere, only to find himself slipping around the wood floor in circles; never able to get very far and never able to stop spinning. He quickly became frustrated with the contraption. Pity. I think if he'd been able to figure it out, he would have enjoyed it!
I also went to the high school and introduced Peyton to a couple of my old teachers -- Mr. Bogart and Senora Paredes. It was really cool to go back to the ol' stomping grounds and see the changes and the unchanged.
Peyton and I finally got to meet Ross, who pretty much live at my family's house when he's in town. Peyton finally got to meet his Grandpa Young, too!
Now I'll do a few more pictures and we'll move on to the New White Coat.
A New White Coat
Dan had his white coat ceremony at UT Southwestern! Though I can't say I got to hear much, I was able to hear two of the talks and see Daniel recieve his white coat. The rest of the time was spent with the cutest boy in the world ... in the halls.
Well, those went up backwards. I'll be honest. I don't really feel like switching them. This blog post is already taking me waaaay too long and if you've made it this far, you probably won't notice after all my droning on and on and on and on and ...
Lastly, Pumpkins
We had our friends, the Jacob's, over for dinner and pumpkin carving. It was a lot of fun! We'll let the pictures do the talking.
If you're wondering what the pumpkin is on the far left (Daniel's) ... it is what you think it is.
That is, if you're thinking, "Whoa! That looks like a freaking fetus!"
