End of 2010

Well 2010 has come to an end! Before I get to the million pictures I need to post here's a quick recap of our super eventful year:

-We got rid of my little Volkswagen Jetta and bought a nice, brand new car - a Mazda 5.

-We found out we were expecting baby #2. A complete and total shock and surprise. It still takes some getting used to, but Quinn Jeffrey will be joining our family come spring ready or not!

-We moved into a new house. Our old house was in a terrible part of town and just wasn't working for us anymore. Our new house has everything we were looking for and we are soooo much happier here. We love it and are excited to be here and not having to look or move anytime soon!! Paiton loves it too and refers to it (still) as the "pretty house" and cries if we go back to the old house!!

-We made new, great friends. Matt always had Kendrick as a friend as they worked together, but over the last year Paiton and I have gotten close to Kendrick's wife Liz, and their daughters Shelby and Auni. We love them so much and are so happy we have them to hang out with.

-I spent about 99.99% of my time with Paiton and I wouldn't have it any other way. It resulted in late nights and early mornings to get work done that I needed to, but at least I haven't missed one single thing in Paiton's life!! She is SO my best friend and we are so lucky to have gotten the coolest kid in the world.

So far, 2011 SUCKS. :) It started off with a bang - from Matt's car!! It seems we have car trouble more often than not and it's always something that must be fixed right then, not something that can wait. Yesterday as we drove to Meridian to run some errands on Matt's last day off, his car start shaking and making loud backfiring noises that sounded like we were getting shot at! When Matt would shift it wouldn't seem to shift and would shake and lurch even worse. Matt thought he knew what it was - a bad coil pack one of the cylinders. We got it into the Auto Zone parking lot and had them pull the code since the Check Engine light had come on. Sure enough - Cylinder 1 Misfire came up. We took the car to the guy who has been fixing our cars the last couple years and what he found was what we thought was wrong....times 3! Not only was the coil pack on cylinder 1 broken, but the other 2 were right behind it and all 3 needed to be replaced. So we were stranded in Meridian because the car wasn't drivable! Luckily Matt's mom was free and came to rescue us!! We got the car back today and it seems to be doing lots better, just hoping that these car issues might stop sometime!! HA!!! We borrowed Matt's mom's car to get home that night and on our way home we realized that both Matt's and my sets of keys were locked in his car at the shop leaving us with no house key! We ran to the shop as fast as we could but they were closed by the time we got there. We ended up having to head to Caldwell to track down our landlord and get a spare key to get in the house. It just extended our ordeal and made our day even longer!!

2011 also started off with 5 dead fish! Santa brought Paiton 5 fish for Christmas and every one of them died within 24 hours of each other. In fact, 3 of them died within about 2 hours of each other! Dang it!! Luckily Paiton hasn't noticed yet and when she asks to see them or feed them I have been telling her that they're sleeping! Bad, I know, but it will have to do until I can get to the pet store and get some new ones, hopefully ones that will live longer than a week!!

2011 will also bring big changes to my work. Quinn is due May 11, and July 1 I will be getting a 37% paycut. You read that right - THIRTY SEVEN PERCENT!! I no longer feel pity for people facing 2% paycuts or freezes on raises at their jobs!!! They are actually getting rid of my position all together, and as you all know I have been doing a class to get a certification to do another job. However that paycut is beyond huge and we just don't know what will happen with just having had a baby with no health insurance!! Eeek! So keep your fingers crossed for us that something positive comes out of this because for now it's a lot of sleepless nights and wondering!

So that is my update for what happened in 2010 and what's coming our way in 2011!! :)

Now for the fun part - the pictures! These are just pictures from after Christmas to New Years Eve that I needed to post!

Paiton discovered this football that showed up at our house somehow. She LOVES it. She wants to play football and we are all too happy to oblige :)

It even goes on rides in the car with us:

We discovered a really cool new play place in Nampa called Jabbers. It's not as physical as Bounce or Monkey Bizness with all their climbing stuff and bounce houses. It has one climbing area and slide, but most of it is to play pretend/make believe and just use your brain and imagination!! These are things that Paiton is great at and loves to do! I bought us a month unlimited pass this month and probably will continue to do that, at least through the cold months! It gets us out of the house and they have WiFi so I can take my laptop and work while she plays!

She likes the train track:

The awesome play house that Paiton likes to play in, isn't it so cute!?

The BBQ area outside of the house:

There is a Construction Zone with cars to drive and stuff to build:

Paiton also loves to play Barbies in this cool doll house:

And a foos ball table for Dads and Grandpas :)

They also have a toddler area with a cool treehouse like Monkey Bizness:

She also loves the BBQ - she thought it was super fun to open and close the BBQ and make her "steak"

The cute little Farmer's Market you can go shopping at!

She's got her list and is ready to shop!

Playing inside the playhouse

Paiton was so cute, she would climb up to go to the slide and as she got to the top she'd always stop, put her arms up, and yell "Ta-da!!" It was SO cute!

Paiton knows that when I take her picture I usually have her stand by the door, so she will now request for me to take her picture while she stands by the door :)

So cute in her big girl jammies:

Ribbon twirling :)

Paiton got this picnic table for Christmas from Matt's parents and Matt built it and she loves it! She wants to sit at it all the time and tells me "bring me food to my picnic table!"

Paiton giving Daddy good snuggles

NEW YEARS EVE:

-New Years Eve is usually trumped for us by Spencer's birthday! This year it was the big 1-8. Spencer always wants to go a movie on his birthday. This year the boys all went to see True Grit. Since it wasn't exactly Paiton-appropriate us girls (Me, Mom, Paiton, Cami, and Grandma) went to see Tangled. Paiton LOVES Tangled and the other's hadn't seen it yet. While we waited for the boys' movie to get over we played again at Jabber's, which is just a few doors down from the movie theater!

This time Paiton had to try out all the different cars!

Paiton put on a puppet show for Mommy:

Then it was time for Spencer's birthday stuff! We gave him a book he wanted, lottery tickets, money to buy more lottery tickets, and a cigar! Ya know, typical 18 year old stuff ;)

Scratching all his lottery tickets (we weren't the only ones with that idea!)

First (and only??) winning ticket:

Thinking he's hot stuff lighting his cigar on his 18 birthday candles:

And then he stunk so we sent him outside!

After cake and presents everyone headed over to our house to play games and wait for the new year!

Cadon and Paiton snuggling on the couch:

Paiton all snuggly watching a movie:

Spencer and Kaitlyn and their New Year's Eve sparkling cider:

And here are just some pictures from my phone:

Paiton is still addicted to her "lickstip" and always has a chapstick in hand, even after she's fallen asleep! :)

I forgot to post this on my Christmas post! My parents, Cheri and Ron, and Brent gave Grandpa this cool bike for Christmas! He loves it so much and hopefully the weather will be nice soon so he can get out and ride it!!!

Paiton still loves to play the piano at Shelby's house! (Grandma Riggs got her her own keyboard for Christmas and she loves that too!!)

Just eating some cereal at Nana's house....

With an ice cream scoop she found!! ;)

An update on funny/awesome things Paiton does:

~She is very sweet and very honest. She will either warn us before she does something naughty, or immediately confess to something she's done wrong. Example: the other day I was putting on my make up when Paiton came in and just stared at me. Here is how our conversation went:

P: Mom?

Me: Yeah?

P: Um....I hit Keilah in the face.

Me: Why would you do that?
P: I was telling her to go away.

Me: What do you need to do now?
P: Walks over and gives Keilah a hug and says "I sorry Keilah."

So sweet!! :)

~As I have posted before Paiton is a huge music girl! She loves all Katy Perry songs, Taylor Swift, and most rap! She can identify who sings what song. Matt and I laugh because when we're in the car a song will come on and Paiton within the first 5 seconds she will tell us either what song it is or who sings it. "Taylor Swift!" "Bottom's Up!" "Fireworks!" It's so funny. Matt says she gets that ability from me and I guess he's right!! She is too cute and we definitely can't tell her no when she starts singing along to whatever comes on! My personal favorite is "I came to dance, dance, dance!" :)

~The other day Paiton had a tea party in her play house at Nannie's. She LOVED it. She used Titi's little ceramic tea set and poured everyone drinks. It was especially cute because she kept calling the teapot a "peacock" and the tea cups "peacups". So cute and I will love that memory of our first tea party forever!!! (Also if anyone sees a little ceramic tea set around, please tell me! Now that I want one I can't find one!)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve and that 2011 will shape up a little better for you than it has us :)