My babies...

I love you babies so much, you complete my world. And I'm so glad you love each other so much and are each others best friends.

My Rant

I promised Matt that I was going to post a rant on here, not that he necessarily wants me to, but it's something that is very annoying to us both!
Next year Matt is slated to get a 6% pay cut! He is also going to be losing 1 of his 2 aides in his classroom. They also are cutting the C team basketball. Doesn't this seem to be a little much in comparison to people who AREN'T receiving a single cut!?
Let's think for a second about how important teachers are - VERY! They are the ones to educate our children, and without education we would be left without - doctors, psychologists, dentists, authors, other teachers, accountants, professors, and many other important people! It's a little ridiculous to me to start making such drastic cuts to such an important part of our world. Yes, the economy sucks. Here is my solution: let's cut the professional athletes salaries. Let's plug some of that money back into our school systems. Movie stars, let's hit them to. It's ridiculous, really. Do we need to pay millions of dollars to athletes!? I really don't think so! How do they benefit the population - the only way I can come up with is that they provide entertainment, same as with movie stars. On a list of things that are important, I'm going to go ahead and put entertainment far below education!
We are paying these people to do something most of us would kill to have time for - work out, play a game of basketball, baseball, golf, football, etc., get dressed up and have someone take your picture, be in a famous movie, etc. Meanwhile the people who actually spend their time WORKING, and HARD, are getting pay cuts and benefits taken away?
And now it's affecting the kids - no C team basketball cuts quite a few kids from getting to play a sport after school. And we all know what that means - increase in trouble after school!
I have so much more I could go on to say but I won't. It's ridiculous, and I think that the other most important people - police officers, firemen, etc., are probably experiencing the same thing. So maybe the next time you want your kid to get into a good college, or you call 9-1-1 and need serious help, a professional athlete or movie star, or someone else who makes all the money in country, will be there to help you. But I highly doubt it. It will be the people who are most caring, and want to do good in world, and make it a better place that will show up. Athletes frequently throw fits, break contracts, etc., if they get paid a few MILLION less than what they think they're worth. Yet these teachers, officers, firemen, go back to their jobs day after day, paycut after paycut because they like their jobs, and they know they are doing good. Those are the real heroes.
So to all the teachers (Matt) police officers (Uncle Tim, Brandon - you count! ;)) and firemen (Uncle Brian) in my life - you guys rock. And in my own little way I am fighting for you!!!

My Husband

Dear My Sweet Husband,
Thank you for booking me a surprise massage tomorrow. You have no idea how much I am looking forward to it! 5:30 tomorrow can't come fast enough!
Thank you for not caring (or at least pretending not to care) that I can't cook and don't cook.
Thank you for working so hard during the day for Paiton and I. You know, you could work much less hard and still make the same amount of money. ;)
Thank you for teaching Paiton all sorts of cool things, like how to say "Niiiiice" and how to give high fives.
Thank you for watching Dora for hours on the weekends and singing along with all the songs with me. Yum yum yum Deliciouso!! Swiper no swiping!
Thank you for being funny and making me laugh, even when you don't think it's appropriate that I laugh! :)
Thank you for being you, and for loving me!
I love you,
A

Silly Girl, Cars Are For Boys!

We have quite the funny little lady on our hands here. But, we already knew that! :) Since Paiton spends so much time with Cadon and Ryan, she has some tomboy in her!
You can't really tell, but this is her pushing a Hot Wheels car around Nana and Papa's house:

We are still so glad that P has Ry Ry and Cadon (she can say Cadon now!) to play with!
And, our little 10 month old Ryan is starting to walk! He LOVES balls and apparently loves them so much that if you put one in front of him he will walk to it and kick it! It's so funny to watch, he is very wobbly and doesn't have much control over it, but it sure is cute!

This weekend Matt, Spencer, Paiton, and I went mini golfing at Boondocks! It was a lot of fun.

I LOVE this backpack. Paiton usually loves it too.

After almost getting a hole in one on the first hole, Spencer DID get a hole in one on the second!


And what would time with Spencer and Matt be if there weren't shooting involved!?


Today I was downstairs working. We are usually upstairs so I took Paiton downstairs so that she could play in her ball pit, which she did a lot of! However at one point she decided her new carseat looked comfy and took a little break in it!


(This is her big girl carseat for when she FINALLY weighs enough to be forward facing!)

Here are some funny Paiton stories:
-She loves giving high fives. She learned this awhile ago, I just kept forgetting to post about it! She will go between Matt and I and say "five?" and want to give high fives. It's very cute. Once she starts it's hard to stop!

-She apparently has a lot of her Mommy's genes in her! She loves barbeque sauce and cream cheese. If she seems me dip my chicken or fries in BBQ sauce she has to do the same. She will dip her fry and then suck the BBQ sauce off and dip it again. I dip Wheat Things in cream cheese, and Paiton follows suit! :)

-She has learned what the word "No" means. In fact, one of our conversations today went like this:
Me: "Paiton please go find someting else to do" Paiton: "No." Me: "Paiton, stop playing with the computer" Paiton: "It's hot". Me: "Paiton! Go play with your toys!" Paiton: "Um. No."
Well, she was right, the computer was hot, and for some reason it was really fun for her to touch it and say "hot". When Paiton says "hot" she always whispers it. We're not sure why, but it sure is cute!!

-As far as sleeping goes, she still doesn't believe in it! I can't get her nap for more than 30 minutes, which is a nightmare since I am also trying to work and take care of her by myself! I asked the doctor about this and she said maybe Paiton doesn't need much sleep during the day because she is sleeping from 7:30 pm to 8:00 am. Well that would make sense, except that most nights she wakes up around once an hour from night terrors. The doctor didn't have any advice on that, so I guess we suffer! Other than that she is doing great!

-We have been watching the Olympics nightly of course! Last night Paiton loved the Ice Dancing and was clapping and dancing while they were skating. It was very cute!

-She is the best kisser ever! She gives big, open mouth, wet and juicy kisses and we can't get enough!! She especially loves kissing RyRy (pictures of that to come, they deserve their own post!)

At Our House....

At our house -

We climb on the dishwasher and have a seat!






We watch Dora The Explorer for hours every day!


Life with a one year old girl. It's the best!!

CapEd Dinner

Last night was the dinner we (ok Matt) were invited to to honor the teacher grant winners, of which Matt is one!!
We had a lot of fun. We got to get a little dressed up:


This is how we pose when we look fancy:


We left Paiton with Uncle B and Aunt Carissa to play with the boys, then Mom and Dad came home and watched her. Like they say, it takes a village. ;) She was a very good girl we heard and we had a lot of fun having a grown up night!

While we were there we got dinner, which was very good. They also gave away door prizes and we NEVER win anything so we were really hoping for something good! I ended up winning a $25 gift card to Radio Shack right away. Later on in the night Matt also won a $25 gift card to Texas Roadhouse!! It was our lucky night I guess. We also got some free stuff that was on the table, which we don't need or have room for, but I believe in taking anything that's free so we came home with 4 glass mugs, 3 wire picture holders, and 2 money clips. SCORE! :)


We had a lot of fun. They announced Matt's name for winning the grant one month, along with the other winners. The two people that work in Matt's class aren't teachers, but they were invited as well since they help in his class, Kendrick and Lara.
It was fun and Matt got some much deserved appreciation for his AWESOME teaching job he does with some difficult kids! :)

Another weekend, come and gone!

I need to start being better about updating like I used to be! Now I have to play catch up!
This is just a funny picture to show how curly Paiton's hair is, we love it!

On Friday, Mom, Grandma Riggs, Cami, Paiton, and I went to the play Footloose. It was a lot of fun! I think Mom and Cami were nervous that I brought Paiton, but I knew she'd enjoy it. Sure enough she spent the first half dancing to the music and watching intently (while snacking on crackers of course!) At the very end of the first half she got a little fussy so I took her out and she just had wanted down to play and was fine. In the second half I sat in the back row by myself (just in case...) and Paiton fell asleep watching. It was a lot of fun.
Here is Paiton's play outfit :)



Of course we had to get some reading in before we left!

Mom and Cami at the play:

Me, Grandma, and Paiton:


Saturday was Paiton's 15 month birthday!! Happy 15 months Paiton!!!
Sunday was of course Valentine's Day!! We got Paiton in her new outfit from her Grandma Kathy and this is the only picture I managed to get of it:


That morning she opened her presents, which included a Valentines alligator (of course) that said "Snappy Valentine's Day!" haha. She got spoiled of course!


On Monday Matt didn't have to work due to President's Day! Woohoo! Paiton had her 15 month check up. We are proud to announce that she FINALLY weighs 19 pounds 2 ounces, after months of weighing only 18 pounds!! We are waiting to hit that 20 pound mark so we can put her new, forward facing car seat in! I spent days researching the safest forward facing car seats, and bought the top rated one, which has been sitting downstairs for months waiting for her to gain weight! She is now 28 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 5% for height and weight. The doctor said that even though she is tiny tiny she is growing just great, she is just always going to be petite like me I guess!
Dr. Zieba asked what all she can do, and her daddy was more than happy to tell the doctor all of her tricks. She was shocked to hear that she can count to 3, which she did in the office!, and said that she is very advanced with all the talking that she does. She basically can communicate in words to us most of what she wants (cracker, cookie, banana, drink, etc.) She is such a smarty!
Here she is waiting for the doctor:

Because of all her catheters, and most recently a strep throat swab, she has become terrified when we go in to the doctor's office. After Dr. Zieba checked her out Paiton was handing me her clothes and trying to put on her jacket and pointing to the door saying "Bye Bye!" As in "get me the heck out of here before they do anything painful!" She did not get her wish, however, as she had to have her Hepatitis A shot! She did great though, and survived!
At 15 months here are some things (definitely not all) that Paiton can do:
~ Count to 3
~ Speak way too many words to list, or even remember (including her newest - No No!)
~ Walk a few steps when she feels like it
~ Climb on everything like a little mountain goat
~ Play in her bath and "swim" like a fishy!
~ Take her diaper off (oh joy!)
~ Climb on and off her rocking horse and be a cowgirl!
~ She knows what "hot" means and uses it appropriately!
~ Sing Bye Bye Birdie during every meal
~ Give the best kisses in the world
~ Love on all her "babies", and then promptly throw them to the ground
~ Give the doggies nice pats and kisses
There is so much more but that's what I can think of right now!
We spent the rest of Monday with Matt's parents, we went to the mall and ate dinner at their house. Paiton was even spoiled with a few purchases while we were out! Lucky girl!
Today Grandma Kathy watched Paiton while I went to a meeting I forgot I had! The report was that Paiton did great and Grandma had fun playing with her!! Thanks Grandma Kathy!!!

Tonight Matt and I are going to a dinner that will honor him and his grant that he was awarded a few months back. I am so excited! Nana will be watching Paiton and I can't wait to go to a grown up dinner with my hubby! Pictures will come!!

THANK YOU!

A big THANK YOU to Grandma and Grandpa Riggs, who babysat Paiton for me yesterday so I could go to a meeting. I was very worried, for them, not for her! She refused to take a nap and instead screamed for over 2 hours, so when I dropped her off she was tired and grumpy. However they reported only good things, including Grandpa going to lie down Paiton saying "Night night!" Silly girl!
She loves them sooo much and I know they love her like crazy right back. She had a lot of fun with them I know and maybe, just maybe, they will be willing to do it again! :)

1, 2, 3!

Last night we were at my parents house because it was Teen Mom night (which I love!). Nana, Paiton, and I were sitting on my mom's bed and Paiton would stand up, and then flop herself down and laugh. At one point my mom said "Listen to her. Is she counting?" and sure enough she was going "One, TWO, three!" and flopping herself down. (Two was her favorite for some reason and she would yell it). Amazing! My child is a genius! At almost 15 months she is counting to 3!? Woohoo! I think it is because every time she takes a bath we count her ducks (She has 6 that she loves to take a bath with) and we drop them in and count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6! I am very impressed!
Here is Little Miss Beauty eating some breakfast:
"What, do I have something on my face?!"

Banana grin! (Oh and it is so cute when she asks for a banana! She will say "ba-nana!")

She loves bananas and is so big that we just peel it and hand it to her and she likes to hold it and bite it herself. No more of this cutting it up stuff! :)
On Super Bowl Sunday her little friend Shelby taught her this new trick


It's called the Push Your Highchair All Over the Floor and Run From Mommy When She Tries To Stop You Before You Spill Your Cup game!

And a couple more funny Paiton stories. (These may be unbelievable, however my mom, dad, sister, and brother were all witnesses!)
The other day at my parents house Cami was trying to get Paiton to say "Titi", like always. Paiton refused, like always, and Cameron said "You're not very bright." Paiton looked right back at her and said clear as day "I'm pretty bright." We all laughed SO hard.
Then later that night my mom sat down on the floor, but hit a toy that made a noise and Paiton looked at her and said "Why'd you break that?"
I don't think we've ever laughed so hard as we did when she said those things. She is amazing and goofy and we love her so much!

Thing To Remember....

Right now Paiton is doing this really cute thing. She will look at us with big eyes and say "Oh Hiiiiii!" in this cute high pitched voice like she is just seeing us for the first time. She will do this even if we've been playing with her or talking to her. It is the cutest thing ever and melts my heart. I will try to get a video of it.

This is a video I took of Paiton a few days ago playing in her crib. She wouldn't come out so I let her play for awhile. At one point I checked on her and secretly taped the little monkey jumping on her bed!!



And here are just come cute pictures I hurried and snapped one day.






I have to admit, I love those giant baby teeth!!

Night 1 in Crib....

Last night Paiton slept in her crib for the first NIGHT ever!!
I put her to sleep in there at 8 pm and she slept until 2 am. I did not sleep, however, because I was worried about her! What if she smothers herself with her blanket or her alligator!? What if someone sneaks in through her window and kidnaps her!? What if, what if, what if!?
At 2 am she woke up crying, I think she was a little scared, so I went in and got her and brought her back to bed with us. I probably could have gotten her back to sleep in there, but hey, it was my first night without her and I needed snuggles! :)
Hopefully tonight she'll go longer than 2 am, and maybe I'll even fall asleep too!

One Year...

Sorry for the abundance of posts, but I didn't feel like all of these things could be posted together. Call it OCD :)
Friday, February 5, marked the one year anniversary of my best friend Amy's death. As everyone I'm sure knows, she was killed in a plane crash in Catalina last year. She was my best friend and had been since the 10th grade. I have more memories than I can possibly begin to share, and some funny stories that only she would get. I miss her so very much, I can't even begin to explain.
This is her headstone:


And this is a very special picture. This is the last picture ever taken of her. It was taken on her boyfriends iPhone aboard the plane that crashed. I love it because she looks so happy and beautiful.


Miss you Aimers, and love you.

Sweethearts

On Saturday night Cameron went to the Sweethearts dance at school with her Sweetheart, Rykley. :)
I took their pictures, after all I am Cami's personal photographer :)
I didn't photoshop them or anything but I thought Cami would be anxious to see some, so here you go, my baby seester in all her glory! :)
The girls worked hard to decorate the table for their special dinner!



Putting the flowers on...


These crazy boys are obsessed with having their pictures taken...


Cuties! (The girl in the purple dress is Cami's best friend, Sara)

Catching Up

Whew, we have had a crazy last few days.
~ Paiton has been taking naps in her crib like a big girl! Now I don't have to worry about her rolling off the bed. It's kind of nice. It's very dark down there, and cool. I put her in her crib, then I sit in the rocking chair next to it and read my book, sometimes I pat her back if she is getting sad or wants to play, then she falls asleep! It is nice not to have to hold her and bounce her for an hour, and it gives me a little quiet time to read, not that I really have time for that, but it's nice to be forced to! :)



~Last Wednesday night Paiton was up all night with a fever. Thursday her and I were both not feeling well and spent the entire day laying on the couch. Neither of us wanted to move. This is how Paiton looked all day, it was so sad:


Thursday night she was up all night with a fever again and Friday morning she cried and screamed for hours straight. She was doing this weird thing with her mouth and so I took her in to the doctor. Of course by now everyone knows that because of Paiton's kidney problem when she gets a fever we all kind of freak out that it's a kidney infection, and I hate taking her to the doctor for fear that they will have to do another catheter on her. She is also terrified of the doctor's office at this point. As soon as Dr. Zieba walks in she cries and cries and clings to me. It is so sad, but it's a result of all those stupid catheters! Well Dr. Zieba checked her ears, hoping it was just an ear infection. (It's so weird to HOPE your baby has an ear infection, but it's far better than the alternative in her case.) Ears were fine. I told Dr. Zieba about the weird mouth thing and she pinned Paiton down and checked her throat. She told me it was covered in white spots and she was going to do a strep test. I wasn't really thinking it could be strep, since she is with me all day long where would she get it? But a few minutes later she came back with the result.....STREP THROAT!! How sad! My poor baby girl has strep throat. The positive- no catheter! Woohoo! So I got her prescription and she is feeling much better now. No idea where she got so sick, but she is much improved!

Also on Wednesday Carissa turned 21, Happy Birthday!


On Sunday Matt invited one of his coworkers/friends, Kendrick, and his family over to watch the Super Bowl. Kendrick, his wife Liz, and one of their daughters, Shelby, came over. Shelby is exactly one month older than Paiton. We had a lot of fun. I had only met Liz once or twice before, but we got along great! We have the same sense of humor and Matt and Kendrick are a lot alike so we had a blast!
For some reason all day Paiton was just laying on the floor. She would crawl to the kitchen and just lay on her back or her tummy. One time she waved to us and said "Night night!" haha. Silly girl.
We caught her laying on the rug, goldfish balanced on her belly, watching the Super Bowl pre-game, haha!

Here are the girls playing together. Shelby is quite a bit bigger than Paiton and can walk. At one point Paiton took quite a few steps behind Shelby to follow her! It was great!



We are so glad Paiton is feeling so much better!