Happy Birthday Dad!

Friday October 2nd, the four of us headed over to Cle Elum to celebrate my Dad's birthday. All of us kids (my brothers and I) and our families were coming over for the birthday celebration during the day and then Dad and Rosie's friends were coming over for dessert in the evening.

The girls playing the piano. Grandma is going to give the girls piano lessons when they get older.

Trent, Kaden, and Payton
Friday night the kids slept in the living room

Gracie greeting them after they all woke up

Saturday:

My step-brother Jon and his family arrived around noon. My step-mom Rosie loves to take pictures, so we all knew that since we were going to all be together for the day, to be prepared to have a photo session! Here's a few that I took with my camera. Once I receive the ones from Rosie's camera, I'll post those.

Gracie and Kyleigh (in the back)

Brooke, Kaden, Payton and Trent on the rail

Six of the eight grandchildren

Jon and Rachel

Kyleigh and Brooke

Rachael and Ryan

Kaden and Trent

Rosie and Dad

Ryan and I

Payton and Gracie

Saturday evening:

After we all had a yummy dinner, Dad and Rosie's friends came over for dessert.

Dad's cake with all SIXTY candles.

Dad successfully blew out all of the candles!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Dad's birthday. It was great being able to hang out with my brothers and all of our kids got to play. I didn't get as many pictures as Rosie did, but I'll post them once I have them.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you had a fabulous day!!!

Sisters

American Idol finalists

We have a couple of American Idol contestents living with us!

GO BEARS!!!

Sunday, September 27th, the Chicago Bears were in town to play the Seahawks. Our good friend Matt has season tickets and since he was going to be out of town, he gave Ryan his ticket. Anyone who knows Ryan, knows that The Bears are his favorite team! If Chicago doesn't do well, it makes our house a little uncomfortable and quiet. Quiet can be nice, but not this kind of quiet.

Thankfully The Bears beat the Hawks and it made for a wonderful evening at home for our family! Thank you Chicago! Ryan said that this is the first time that The Bears beat the Seahawks in Seattle since he was born (1977).

Payton in her "Go Bears" cheer leading uniform
Ryan and his little Bears fans.
Gracie had her Bears onsie on under her sweater

Loving babies

Gracie loves her baby! She loves to push her around in a stroller, give her baby it's binkie, and feed her. It's so cute watching Gracie cuddle her baby. She's growing up so fast!

Top Chef

Payton LOVES to help cook! Like here, here, here, here, and here just to give a few examples. Any time Payton can help, we let her. She enjoys seeing dinner made from start to finish and it's helped with her trying new things. Especially since she's such a picky eater!

Ryan wanted to make homemade pizza and Payton loved being able to make it the way she wanted it! Simple dinner, but oh so yummy!

Payton's first day of Pre-school

On Tuesday, September 15th, Payton started pre-school. *Sniff sniff* I can't believe my baby girl is now in pre-school. Yes, it's only pre-school, but still, she's going to school.

On Monday, Ryan went to the Meet and Greet so Payton could see her classroom and meet her teacher. I unfortunately couldn't go since I had to work, but I was very thankful Ryan got to see where Payton was going and be able to meet her teacher too.

Payton was so excited to go to school, I don't know if she even slept the night before!

Ryan and Payton finding Payton's name tag and signing her in.

Ryan had taken the day off to celebrate my birthday with me, so it worked out even better that he got to take Payton to her first day of school with me!

Payton's name tag.

Waiting for the rest of her classmates to arrive so they can all go back to their class together.

After we picked up Payton from school we went to Red Robin to celebrate my birthday.

Payton and Daddy

Gracie and I

Payton had a wonderful first day of school. She had a hard time leaving and said she wanted to live there. Thankfully now she understands that she gets to back!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sunday the 13th, Ryan had invited a few of my closest friends out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. He made reservations at Grazi, my most favorite Italian restaurant. It was a great evening with some of my most favorite people!

Payton took these pictures of Ryan and I before we left for dinner
She did an excellent job!

Me, Nika and Tiffany

Matt and I

Jannette and Brian

Tiffany and Calen

My yummy birthday dessert

Natalie and I

Me and Hilary

Tiffany and I

Me and Nika

And the award of Mommy of the Year goes to...

Not me!!! Gracie got a fat lip WHILE we were at the doctor for Payton!

Ok, so this is what happened.. Payton had had a cough for about a week and Ryan and I didn't think it was much to worry about. But since she is starting school, we wanted to rule out any sort of sickness so she could attend her first day! SO, last week I took her to the doc's office.

Picture it, Payton sitting up on the exam table, me and Gracie in one of the chairs. Gracie's squirming, like normal, and wants to sit by herself. I put Gracie in the chair next to me, next to the wall so there was support on either side of her. The nurse was talking to me and I was turning to face the nurse and within 2.2 seconds we heard a thud, gasp, and wail! Yes, Gracie fell on the floor. Her front tooth nicked the inside of her lip, causing it to instantly swell. The doctor was in the exam room next to ours with another patient and heard the thud and scream and came over right away. At first he couldn't tell if she was going to need stitches, but thankfully, she didn't. Phew!

I couldn't get a good picture of how big her lip was. It got about as large as a peanut m&m. Thankfully the swelling has come down almost fully, but it's still black and blue inside. Our poor babe!

Oh, and Payton is just fighting the cough on her own. She doesn't hasn't had a fever since we took her and she hasn't been complaining about her ears, so all is good with Payton!!