Adventures in the Snow!

We got lots of snow this weekend in NC! We haven't seen this much snow in NC at one time in a few years. Yesterday it was really windy and still snowing/sleeting, but this morning the sun was shining and everything was so beautiful covered in snow. We bundled up in lots of layers and headed out to play. We made a sled out of the top of a cardboard box and we even tried to make a snowman, but it became clear to us that we are true southerners and we don't really know what we're doing. Our house is at the top of a big hill and the road slopes down from us, so it made the perfect place to go "sledding". My mom has been in town, and has had to stay a couple of more days because of the weather, so she got to enjoy the snow too!

Here are a few pictures of the snow:












Here is our attempt at sledding:

Songs and Cheers!

We've been teaching Peyton all of the important songs in life - the LSU fight song and the Saints' song among them.

I think he's already a little tiger in training!



He knows the Saints' song too, but he knows we want him to sing it for the camera and he's only willing to cooperate to a certain extent, so here is a shortened version of the Saints' song:




As the "Pants on the Ground" song went viral, we decided he should know that one too!

A Good Laugh

Its always fun to make Peyton laugh. Every now and then we find something that just makes him crack up. We got the video camera out after I just happened to blow a raspberry and Peyton acted like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all day. We had a good time listening to him laugh so much.

Ho Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas!
Peyton happily sat on Santa's lap and told him all of the things he wants for Christmas. Apparently a bike is at the top of his list. We were in Target the other day and passed the bikes. "Pey-pey, bike!" is all Peyton said over and over again. Santa made note of this, no worries. But he's also made note of some of the tantrums that Peyton has had lately. Too bad Peyton is too young for us to hang this over his head yet.
We're looking forward to our trip to NOLA soon and getting to see everyone!

Funny Little Guy

As Peyton's vocabulary is growing, he's starting to say some of the funniest things. He cracks me up! I just thought I'd share a couple of funny things he's said recently.

Last weekend, my mom was visiting, and of course we went shopping. We had bags of stuff (mostly for Peyton) when we returned. She and Peyton were playing and Peyton picked up one of the plastic bags. He watches Patrick and I pick up after our dog on all of our walks, and apparently he has been analyzing everything we do. He took this bag and turned it over and over and folded it and kept folding and turning it over until it was all wound up. He then handed it to my mom and said, "Poot!" She's still laughing about this.

Then just this morning, Peyton and I were playing in the living room. Nellie kept trying to make herself comfortable sitting in my lap on the floor, and of course, this meant that Peyton also wanted to sit in my lap. As the two of them pushed and shoved each other, Peyton leaned forward and passed gas. He said, "Nice!" just as Nellie got up, huffed, and retreated to the other side of the room, as if she couldn't take the smell. I'm not sure where he learned that it was "nice" to fart. Boys!

Fireman Peyton to the Rescue!

I started thinking about what we should be for Halloween a couple of months ago. As usual, Patrick pushed for us to be Blue Man Group or Smurfs, both of which involved painting ourselves blue, neither of which I was very interested in. He's campaigned for these themes at least 5 years in a row. Its kind of funny that this is what he wants to dress up as because Patrick can't stand a mess, and I can't think of anything messier than painting myself blue. In the end, we decided to capitalize on one of the Peyton's favorite toys - TRUCKS! He loves trucks, especially his firetruck. So we dressed him up as a fireman, which he loved. Patrick went as a fireman too and I dressed up as a dalmation.
Our festivities started Friday night with a visit to a nearby community that was having kids night, complete with beltie goats that Peyton could get very close to. He was so excited!


They also had a bluegrass band playing. Peyton grooved and showed off his mad dance skills and amused the band. They had over a hundred pumpkins on display, with some really fantastic designs. I haven't had time to carve a pumkin in years, much less fancy ones like these!

Then we had some friends over Saturday night for a kid-friendly Halloween celebration. I made a pot of gumbo from scratch (the roux and everything, no cheating this time!) and we went to a few houses in our neighborhood to go trick or treating.
Its not easy to get 8 adults and 4 toddlers all in a good mood and ready at the same time. But we did manage to take a quick snapshot before we all set out.
Fireman Peyton pushed his firetruck all around and knocked on doors like he was a pro at this whole trick or treat thing. Lucky for him, there weren't really any other trick or treaters around so people were quite generous in handing out portions of candy. Well, ok, lucky for Patrick and me because we don't really let Peyton eat any of it yet.


Then we he got tired of pushing the truck, mom had to push it the rest of the way home.....
We didn't stay out too long. It was quite warm out and meltdowns started to occur throughout the crowd. Maybe next year we'll have to get Peyton a wizard hat, since he took a liking to this witch hat....

Pumpkin Patch

What is fall without a visit to the pumpkin patch? We visited the coolest pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago with Peyton's pal Amelia. It was actually more like a farm, complete with goats, cows, a corn maze, hayrides, and lots and lots of pumpkins.

Peyton was thrilled to be able to feed the goats "Baaaa!"

We also enjoyed the hayride. Anything with trucks and tractors is really cool!

There was a little maze of hay that was just Peyton's size

And a corn maze with lots of different paths to run through! Here he is with his best gal pal, Amelia

He really enjoyed running with Mrs. Lauren.

What a cute picture of Mrs. Lauren and Mr. Chad!

And we got to pick out our very own pumpkin. We ended up cutting ours fresh from the vine!