Catching up...

Before Christmas we went to stay with my Grandma. I love going to my Grandma's house, it has always been my favorite places to be away from home. This time I made sure to get a few pictures with Grandma. My goal is to get a couple each visit. I esp. love the picture of Peyton and his cousin Porter with Grandma. You can definitely see Paxton's jaundice in these pictures. I am happy to report that it has finally gone away. It took 3 months to get rid of it!

























We had Paxton blessed on Nov. 5th. His Uncle Tim gave him the blessing and close family and friends came. We had the blessing done in the late afternoon and then had dinner at our house after. It was a very special day. I am so thankful for those who came and shared the special occasion with us.















Peyton was so much fun for Christmas this year! All he wanted from Santa was "Trash Pack". We had no idea what they were until Peyton showed us the commercial. They kind of remind me of Garbage Pail kids (except not quite as disgusting) and Pogs. They are collectible trash creatures that all come in their own little trash can and there are games you can play with them. Well, Christmas morning Peyton found that Santa had left them by his stocking. Peyton would have been happy if that was the only thing he got. Paxton's favorite gift is the activity gym that Santa brought him. On Christmas eve we all get new jammies and I had to get Peyton and Paxton matching ones:) My Dad and Step-mom started that tradition when I was little and while it only lasted a short time it is a memory that stuck with me. So I love new Christmas eve jammies!



































Well, that pretty much gets my blogging up to date. Paxton is already over 3 months and getting so big! At his 2 mo. check up he weighed 11lbs. 14oz. and was 23in. long. I can't believe how fast he is growing! He is a really good baby. He loves his big brother and always will smile at him. He hates tummy time except on rare occasion. He loves mommy and daddy! If you are not mommy, daddy or Peyton you never now if he will smile at you or cry. When he decides he is hungry, he wants to eat NOW! There is no stalling him in that department. He still wakes quite frequently in the night and is not yet on a good nap schedule. But we keep trying, hopefully we'll get it down soon. We found he has very sensitive skin. He had a rash all over but after switching laundry soap and baby wash it is almost gone. He also has a few patches of eczema. His hair is so crazy, I love it! But, he already had to have his first haircut. He had two little patches on the sides that went clear down past his earlobes. So I just trimmed those little pieces off and left the rest of the craziness alone. He has his first cold right now:( Even though he doesn't feel the greatest he is still all smiles.














Peyton is doing super good as well. We found he does fine having wheat but the milk is what bothers him. He has been fine with the changes and actually likes all the other kinds of milk that we have tried... coconut, rice, almond, soy. He likes it all:) He is a super good big brother and so loving towards Paxton. He is still loving school and loves to color and draw. He loves going to the special features section on all the movies we own and watching how the movie was made. He is such a big tease. He is always tricking Jake and I. For example, he was in the garage with Jake and said "dad dinner is done." Then when Jake came in the house, Peyton said"just kidding". We get tricked like that all the time. He is such a character and he loves wearing these glasses to trick people. He wore them to tease his best friend and his little friend was scared of them. So we had to put them away while he was over.

little Paxton

I am a little behind posting since these pics were taken at 9 days old and now little Paxton is already 9 weeks old. He is such a joy to have in our home. He is just a little angel. He cried a little more than Peyton did at first. But now he just cries when he is hungry and really tired. He is starting to smile lots. He loves his swing and the mobile that hangs above it. He will just smile and coo at the little animals. Peyton LOVES being big brother! He is so sweet and a big helper. He will always hug Paxton and he is so gentle, even though he tells me he wants to hug him hard "because he is just so cute". Paxton is sleeping well, most nights he wakes up around 3 and then not until 6 or 7. He still has breast milk jaundice and the doctors here didn't know why. They had a full blood screening done to check the function of his organs and everything is perfect. He is completely healthy. His pediatrician then contacted Primary Children's to get a second opinion. They said all the tests look great and he is a healthy normal baby. Just a rare case of jaundice lasting longer than normal. It isn't too obvious until you see the whites of his eyes are a bit yellow. Other than that everyone just asks where he gets his dark skin from since Jake, Peyton and I are all so fair. LOL. We are so blessed to have two beautiful healthy boys and we are just loving every minute.

Adjusting from 3 to family of 4....would be too easy, right?

We are all doing good. Little Paxton is already changing and growing so much. He is starting to fill out and get a little chubby. Peyton is loving being big brother and is so helpful! I have pics to load and some catching up to do. Hopefully I will get to that soon. We are adjusting from being family of 3 to family of 4. If that isn't enough in and of itself we are in for a whole lifestyle change. Peyton has been treated for allergies and asthma for 2 years now. The medications don't seem to help him a whole lot. They are expensive and I am sure they all have their side effects. Some of which are obvious and Peyton doesn't like. We have taken him to pediatrician multiple times and expressed that we don't like keeping him on this med all the time, but they still continue to prescribe for each symptom. Making me feel like a "bad mom" if I don't give him the meds. We took him to an allergy and asthma specialist and found a couple things that could be causing the problems. We took all those things away and still coughing and stuffy noses all the time. So we recently decided to take him to a naturalpathic dr. to get to the cause. We were told to try taking him off all milk and wheat products for 6 weeks. We had already taken him off milk products a week before the visit and have seen slight improvement already. So have you ever read food labels? Milk and wheat (gluten) is in everything! We have had to clean out our cupboards and refill them. (It's not fair for us to eat the same as before and tell Peyton he can't have certain foods.) Shopping and cooking is completely different than it used to be and much more time consuming. It makes it really hard not to have a health food store where we live. Our options are limited. I am sure it will get easier, but WOW! I really hope this helps Peyton and we can get to the root of the problem. Most of all we hope that he will feel better! I would appreciate any info. anyone may have on the gluten- free/ dairy- free diet.

Introducing....

Our beautiful baby boy, Paxton Russel was born on Oct. 16th at 2:33 am. He weighed 6lbs. 15.2oz and was 20.5 inches long. We actually had two others names that we were debating and then about two weeks before he was born I heard the name Paxton for the first time when my Mom was reading something out loud. I loved it and so did Jake, even Peyton liked it and was finally okay with not naming him Andy. So the name Paxton stuck and Russel is after his Grandpa Russ. We are so excited that he is here with us and healthy. Having Paxton has been so different than when I had Peyton, both amazing in their own ways. I was not induced this time around, and I opt out of ever being induced again. It was so much easier just waiting for my body and his little body to be ready and have everything happen on its own. Peyton has been such a good big brother already! He is so sweet and hugs Paxton and strokes his little head so gently. He says he loves having a baby brother. He has even told me that Paxton is his favorite member of our family now. I sure hope things stay that way as they get older! LOL We have also been so blessed with so many amazing friends and family stop by with gifts and meals and ready to help in any way. We are so thankful for everyone who has came by and sent gifts and meals our way. Everyone has also been so thoughtful to include Peyton and make him feel super special to be a big brother. Thanks to all the wonderful people in our lives...we love you all!

Down to the "Nitty Gritty"

Well, I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems that nine months of pregnancy lasts forever when you don't have any kids yet. Well, the second time around just flies right by. I guess the first time I didn't have anything better to do but eat and sleep. Now the second time around I am always busy being a wife and mommy, I don't have time to just sit around and eat bon bons anymore! HAHA! We are now down to the last few weeks and we are getting super excited! We don't really have everything ready yet. Like the baby's room, um yeah, still a mess! We still have a few things that need to be moved out of there and into the basement. Then we need to set up the crib and decorations. I finally did go through all the baby stuff and get everything washed and put away in the dresser and closet. The car seat is ready to go, along with the car seat canopy I made:) I guess if he decided to make an early appearance we could get by. I started to make a rag quilt for him and the sewing machine started acting up. I took it to the repairman and he asked if I was in hurry to get it back. I told him what I was working on and that I had 6 weeks before the due date. I was supposed to get it back that Saturday. Well, repairmen seem to have crazy busy lives too! I just got it back today, a couple weeks late! I should have time to get that project done as long as the old thing decides to cooperate! So all is well and we are just trucking right along. Baby still doesn't have a name just yet. We do have a couple picked out and just aren't sure which to go with yet. We may just have to see him first. Of coarse, Peyton is still hoping to name him Andy from Toy Story. Hate to break Peyton's little heart, but that is not one of the prospects. Here are a couple pics, the first one is at 27 weeks, the second is at 36 weeks, and third the car seat canopy I made.

My sweet little "big boy"

Peyton started preschool a couple of weeks ago. He went to preschool last year as well. Last year he came home most days telling us he played. We rarely could get more out of him about what his class did that day. We put him in for the social aspect, which he did benefit from. Other than that we didn't feel he got much out of going. Maybe that school does more with the four year old class but Jake and I still felt like Peyton needed more of a challenge. So we decided to switch schools for this year. Peyton has learned more in the first few weeks than I think he learned all last year. Peyton gets in the car and immediately starts telling me all the things he did that day and what he learned. We already are loving his new school and are so happy we made the change. This school is much smaller and lots of the kids walk in the door by themselves. Peyton had Mommy or Daddy walk him in the first few times. Then, one morning he said "Mom I want to walk in by myself." I said "Okay, are you sure?" Peyton then replied, "Mom, I still love you. I just want to try it by myself." Well, mommy's heart melted and I had to let my big boy walk in all by himself. Now he prefers to walk by himself every morning :( Mommy is sometimes sad that he is growing up, but I love watching him grow and I love seeing his confidence shine through. Peyton still loves books and he loves to draw and color. We still read books everyday. I am glad that he loves books so much. He is very good at coloring and he really takes his time to stay in the lines. He will sit at the table and color or draw for hours. I will even try to get him to play or watch a movie with me and he tells me he wants to color. Here is one of the many pictures that he has colored. He colored it all by himself without any help, we think it is awesome! We are so proud of our Peyton!

busy summer....

This is what we have been up to all summer. It seems to have been a cram and jam summer trying to get everything done around here. We have done a ton of stuff to our house. We cut a door in downstairs; making a nice walk-out basement, put up a cedar fence, poured a pad for the dog run along with a large nice stamped patio, finished our basement and put in a wood burning fireplace which included getting firewood. (whoo) There were bumps in the road along the way to make things more difficult, it seems things always work out that way. For example right after we got the drywall and paint done in the basement...it flooded. Luckily the water stayed low enough not to damage anything and that was the week before we had the flooring put in. I did not get any pictures since I was home alone on restrictive duty with the pregnancy....I was kind of freaking out trying to get buckets of water and hall them out. Jake was an hour or more away at work and so my wonderful father-in-law came to the rescue helping to suck all the water out with a big shop vac. (pictures was the last thing on my mind) A few days later the patio, stairs and drain got finished so hopefully we shouldn't flood like that ever again. I can't take much credit for any of the work, since being pregnant put a halt to most of the hard labor done around here for me. Jake did most of it and then hired to have help for some when he was too busy at work to get stuff done around here. Anyway, from the pictures you can tell there are still odd and ends to finish to perfect the job but it is so close, I was anxious to take some pics and post. Peyton loved being outside and helping daddy work. Tim and Mara came out for the Rodeo and we had a blast! Grandma and Buggsy made a big dutch-oven breakfast one morning that was delish and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt. We made it out to Grandpa Doug and Grandma Debbie's for a few days too. Peyton loved being outside and he loved the horses and the dogs. Peyton also had fun teasing his grandpa and imitating the way grandpa eats otter pops... he kept us all laughing the whole trip! He was so funny and such a good boy even for the whole drive. He fell on the sidewalk the day before we left and got a nice big raspberry under his eye... ouch :( Jake built some really nice gates for dad and Deb and helped work on their corrals while we were there. We had fun just hanging out and visiting. Peyton was a handsome little ring bearer in Jake's cousins wedding and he was so cute and did such a good job! We also managed to hit some parades and festivities for the holidays and spent a lot of the summer with just our little family. We also got some camping in, some of which was just "us" and some with friends. It was really busy around here, but made for a great summer! I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to spend it with. Here are a few pictures from our summer...