Peyton and Amelia

Just thought I'd share an adorable picture of Peyton and his pal Amelia that Mrs. Lauren snapped yesterday.

Hoppy Easter!

We celebrated Peyton's 1st Easter this year because Easter fell before he was born last year. First, he got to go on an Easter egg hunt at UNC with his pal Amelia. Amelia brought her own Easter basket, but we forgot ours. Luckily enough Amelia was willing to share her basket, so Peyton went around and picked up the little Easter eggs and trinkets and filled up her basket.





There was even a Pinata that Peyton got to smash.











He got right up in there with the kids when the candy came smashing down and scored me a snickers!




For the actual Easter weekend, we headed to the mountains to meet up with Patrick's parents. We had a nice time walking around the shops in the town of Black Mountain and took a nice hike while we were there.






Patrick's cousin Laura lives in Knoxville so she and her family came and spent the night with us for Easter.







We dyed Easter eggs (ok, well truth be told, Peyton just smashed the egg and tried to eat it. I dyed his egg for him.) The Easter bunny brought baskets for the kids and hid eggs all over the cabin for them to find Easter morning. Chloe and Eric even helped Peyton to find a few eggs.







Chloe, Eric, and Peyton

Peyton's 1st B-day Monkey Party!

We had a little birthday party for Peyton weekend before last.The theme was monkeys. Shocking, I know.






Some of Peyton's little buddies came over to help us celebrate in addition to other friends and family. Mrs. Lauren did a great job facilitating the art project. The kids got to paint pictures on a big banner and she kept everything under control. I can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued if I had tried to manage that! She's a child whisperer. You know, like Ceasar Milan for kids.







I made some monkey cupcakes for everyone to enjoy.




And my friend Laura made Peyton's smash cake. She did such a good job!



This was Peyton before he ate his cake.....










And this was Peyton after he ate his cake.


I think he thoroughly enjoyed his day!

More 1 year adventures

I thought there were a few other videos that I should share from Peyton's big day.

In this first video, Ms. Lauren is singing a song and Peyton is helping her. I think we might have the next American Idol on our hands.




For his birthday, Aunt Cindy sent Peyton some authentic cowboy boots from New Iberia! They have a little heel on them, so they are a little different from what Peyton is used to. But here was his first attempt at walking in them.

Peyton's 1st Birthday!

My goodness a year has passed! I've thought a lot today about exactly what I was doing last year on this day. Last year, I woke Patrick up at 3am to tell him that I had felt my first contraction. He tried to talk me into going back to sleep. He figured we could get a few more hours in. Yeah, right. I was too excited at that point. And in pain. We got up and started packing and by 7am we were at the hospital.

I looked up at the clock at about 4:15 this afternoon and remembered that at this time last year, I had been pushing for an hour. Only 2 1/2 more to go!

I had no idea what the next year had in store for us. Its been a lot harder than I thought it would be, but even more wonderful, exciting, and awesome than I thought it would be. Peyton has brought us such joy, from that first belly laugh when Patrick was playing peek-a-boo with him, to his first attempt at a GI Joe crawl, to his first steps, and his first word (which I believe was "clock"), this year has seen so many milestones. I'm still in awe that just a year ago today he was a tiny thing (by his standards, anyway) that had just entered the world and that he has now morphed into this little being that is starting to really understand the world around him. When he runs over to hug me, I am filled with this warm feeling and a happiness that I can't describe. I can't wait to get home to get that hug everyday because it makes everything better. I love being a mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This is just the first year - I can't wait to watch him grow and explore even more.


I take birthdays very seriously and I wanted to do something to mark the occasion. So we took Peyton for his first McDonald's breakfast this morning to start out the day. He ate some yummy pancakes and wondered what all the fuss was about as I snapped some pictures.

Then he got to go to Mrs. Lauren's to play with his pals Amelia and Camden. They even got to make pudding today and Peyton got to stir the bowl. I hear he really liked it. Perhaps we have a young chef on our hands!

When we got home this evening, we had a small treat for Peyton. He's going to have a real cake for the first time at his birthday party this weekend, but I wanted him to have a little something today, so I got him a little fruit tart. He tore right into it, barely waiting for Patrick to cut up his fruit for him. And Patrick and I sang him "Happy Birthday!" while Nellie sat under the highchair and cried because he wasn't sharing. Or maybe because of our singing. Peyton is still working on blowing out the candle. Right now, he blows hard out of his nose, but I think he at least gets the concept. We'll keep working on that one.