Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Today my little girl from heaven turns 1!!! I can't believe it. On Saturday we had her first birthday party, and, if I do say so myself, Payton was dressed for the occasion.



I mean seriously, how can she not look A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. in a brown and pink tutu with a cupcake top?

Payton's cousin Jack came all the way from Amarillo to celebrate with Payton.



Here is the cake I designed myself. And by designing myself, I mean taking the invitation to the bakery and saying I want something that looks like the invite.




Little Miss Payton was not impressed with her cake. She just picked the icing off and then held up her hand like now what?




I thought I would help things along by smashing her hand into and putting some on her lips. I thought for sure when she tasted the icing she would go nuts because she has 1/2 of my DNA, but it was a no go.




So....... sensing a melt down at any moment, Mommy got her out of the highchair and cleaned up to open presents.





Present time with her big cousin Addison to help. The kiddo didn't "need" anything prior to her party, but that didn't stop people from spoiling her rotten!!! She got so many gifts!!!! Mema got her a baby doll with all the accessories, Granny and Pops got her clothes, more clothes, a Little Tike's swing set, Pa Pa Sammy and Granpat got her the Pottery Barn retro pink stove, Mommy and Daddy got her the Pottery Barn retro pink oven (Santa is bring the fridge), and all our friends got her books, clothes, tea sets, kitchen pots and pans!! I am telling you the kid made out like a bandit, and Mommy and Daddy are trying to figure out where to store all the goods in our house.






It was such a wonderful day!!!!

It is so hard for me to imagine that one year ago today that Miss Payton came into our lives. I can't imagine not having her. I am more than thankful that we all made it through the first year. When we brought Payton home Derek and I were scared to death. I remember looking at her thinking, "I can't believe the hospital is letting us leave with her? What do we know about babies?" I remember driving home with her in our car (she slept the whole way) thinking how tiny she looked in the car seat.






This year has had it ups and downs. We have learned a lot as parents and are still learning as we go. However, despite Mommy and Daddy's learning curve, I know that Payton has always felt love and happiness from us. She is our world. Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!!!!!!!!!

Ice, Ice, Baby

Payton's birthday party was Saturday and it was a blast. I will be posting pictures and video when I get a chance; however, I want to take this time to blog about Ice at the Gaylord.

Since we had all our family in town, we thought after the party we would go see Ice. We purchased our tickets for 5:30 and thought we would be out in plenty of time for the guys to watch the Cowboys game at 7:00. WRONG!!!!

Ice...... was awful. They were running an hour and half behind. It was extremely crowded with long lines. Long lines and small children equal BAD, BAD, TIMES!!!!

The tickets were over $20 per person and the experience was awful. I am so upset with Gaylord. In an effort to get people in they started crowding too many people in the exhibit so you couldn't even really move around and see everything. If you pay that much money for a family event it seems that the Gaylord would have their stuff together. FYI GAYLORD TEXAN....... don't sale so many tickets when you know you can't handle all the people.

I felt so bad for my in-laws and SIL rushing to get there in time to be met with long lines. I will NEVER do that again. I am seriously so upset by the whole event I am thinking about writing to the Gaylord and asking for my money back.

Other than the ICE ordeal, Payton's birthday was a success.

The Big Day

is fast approaching!!! Payton will be turning the big ONE on Tuesday and her party is planned for this Saturday.

Here is her invitation. (Okay, not her actual invitation because this is a birth announcement I found online, but this is the invitation we used).



We changed the wording to say:


"We are Over the moon
for our little
Payton June
Please come share the fun
to celebrate Payton turning one!"


I can't believe my baby girl is going to be one. I remember when we first brought her home and my mom was over helping us get settled into parenthood. My mom told me to remember this because she will only be a baby for a little while. It is so true. Although she is still my "baby" she is more like a toddler now. She is walking and "talking" and getting into everything. It is still amazing to me how much she has changed in just one year. Don't get me wrong, I love the stage she is in now, but looking back at pictures when we first brought her home makes me sad that she has grown so fast.

I know that her party on Saturday will be a mixture of emotions. I will be happy because we made it through her first year, thankful for all the friends and family that travelled to share in her party and love us so much, delighted to see her with her cake, sad that my baby is growing up so fast and honored to be her mom all at the same time.

So Much to Say

First of all we went to West Texas for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. Payton was such a trooper on the car ride up there. I did take tons of photos; however, they are on a different card. Payton did experience her first snow on Sunday as we were leaving Amarillo. She wasn't that impressed with it.

However, Payton did meet this fella last night (again she wasn't impressed).





Payton is getting to be such a big girl and had to sit at the kids table with all the kids at the Christmas party. Miss Thang thought she was just as big as the other kids.




Then on Saturday we had her professional one year old (again ONE YEAR OLD!!!) pictures made and holiday pictures with Cooper. You can't take pictures inside the session, so I snapped this one after she was done.




Here she is in her holiday outfit. We have been working with Payton all week to show us her teeth (a.k.a. smile) for her pictures. What do you think? Do you think we over practiced???





Then on Saturday night we stayed with Grandpat and Cooper. The Cousins had on their matching pjs and Payton loved giving Cooper hugs. Aren't they just too cute for words?




This has to be my favorite picture. Cooper is calling Santa (on Payton's rattle) to let him know that he has been good and what he wants for Christmas. Payton is in the background "stealing" Cooper's sippy cup of milk. I am telling you........ these two are nothing but trouble waiting to happen.




We tried to get a picture in front of the tree, but Cooper couldn't take his eyes of Polar Express and Payton was just wanting to roll around.





Can't really explain this one, but Payton LOVES her Cooper. She is always wanting to hug him and play with him. Cooper is such a trooper for putting up with her little antics.



Grandpat may be upset for this picture, but the story is too cute to pass up. Cooper crawled into Grandpat's lap to watch the movie. Well, Payton wasn't going to be left out in the cold; therefore, she had to be in Grandpat's lap as well. She had no interest in sitting with Grandpat until Cooper decided he wanted to.




We also put up our tree this weekend and decked the halls. I also went out and purchased Payton's birthday party supplies. Now all I have to do is get Christmas cards out.