The Bachelor Party

A Boys Night Out!!!

While the girls were having the bridal shower, the boys all took Nick out to have one last boys night out before getting married. It was a good way for him to bond with my crazy family. I think they had a really good time. They were even out longer than the girls were, but then I guess they didn't have children that they had to get to bed.

Here is my dad taking a break.

My brother, Jaren and Nick, Sarah's soon-to-be husband, playing some games.


The boys playing laser tag. My dad is really good at this game. I guess have 30+ years in the military probably helps his skill level. Both my dad and my brother Dustin are "sharpshooters" in the military. I guess they pretty much had the entire place to themselves and even had the guy that was running the laser tag jump in a play a few games with them.

From left to right: Nick; Jaren; Eric; Craig; my Dad, Glen; and Dustin.

Nick just having fun in the balls. He fits right in with my family.

Sarah's bridal shower

Well, we made the 3 1/2 hour trip up to Idaho Falls from Lehi. Craig and Dustin drove up in their 4 runner with it packed full of stuff for the reception (triffle bowls, trays, 17 gallons of Hawaiin punch, coolers for the flowers, strollers, a pack-n-play, and tons of other "necessary stuff", and I rode up with Jen in her Accord with both boys. The trip started well, until about 1 hour into the ride, Peyton started to grunt and then the oh so recognizable smell of a dirty diaper smelled up the car. So we stopped at the first McDonalds and I ran inside with just a diaper and the wipes. Well, I get in the bathroom and there isn't a changing table, no paper towels, so with a bunch of toilet paper down, I lay Peyton on the floor of the bathroom to start changing his diaper, only to discover that it was a major blow-out. His worst one to date. Needless to say, I ran out of wipes, and I had to run back out to the car with Peyton only in a diaper in about 40 degree weather to get some new clothes and finish the clean-up. Whew, so 1 hour into the ride, Peyton needed fresh clothes, and Zach was still sleeping. Well, of course 1 hour later, both boys were hungry, so we stopped to eat at yet another McDonalds, then we were back on the road. Thankfully the trip wasn't any longer. I am not sure we would have all arrived in one piece.

We went my sister Sarah's bridal shower in Idaho the day before her wedding. It had been a long day for Peyton and he really wasn't too excited about all of the strange people wanting to hold him. He is not used to having any family around, so it was sad that he really didn't even want to go to his Grandma or Grandpa. The shower was a bit hard on him, but as soon as we were outside, he could run and run, so he was happy. I did get to peek through the open door a few times to see what presents she was getting.

Me and Peyton at the shower.

Sarah...what a beautiful bride-to-be. She really had a good turn-out and got a lot of great gifts. It dawned on me the day of the shower that as the matron of honor, I was the one that was supposed to host the bridal shower for her. Whoops. I am glad that Nick's sisters picked up where I was lacking! Bad sister!!!

Here is my grandma, Mildred Simmons and my Aunt Anna Jean, with Zachary. My grandma is turning 90 this year. I think that she really looks good for her age. This was the first time she had seen Zach. I was bummed that I didn't get any pictures of her with Peyton, but Peyton is so heavy, fast, and hard to hold at this stage. I didn't want to worry her. It sure was nice to see my only living grandparent.

Sarah opening my gift. I only had a diaper box, so she got that. Everyone thought that that was funny that I would wrap her presents in that box, but I really didn't think twice about it. She didn't care. She only cared about all the good stuff inside the box. Notice that Peyton is right there trying to help open the next gift. Always a helper!

Just a few random picutures from out stay in Utah

Here are just a few random pictures from our visit that were worth putting on our blog.

Zach hanging out in his swing. So content.

Peyton and Zach. Peyton is ready to jet!

Little Zach

Here is another picuture of Peyton after eating a sucker. He was so proud of his blue tongue. It was really hard to catch a good picture of him though, because he wouldn't just hold his tongue out.

Me and my littlest nephew Zach. He was so light at only 13 pounds. Compared to Peyton he was like lifting feathers!

Pampered Chef Cooking Show

I was so excited that my sister-in-law Jen said that she would host a Pampered Chef cooking show for me while I was in Utah. Here are a few pictures at my show. We had a good turn out and had lots of yummy food. Plus I get to write-off my plane ticket to Utah and I made some money, and Jen made out like a bandit. She has some awesome stuff coming in the mail this week.

Here is my spread of stuff. My bags weighed so much. I was really glad that we could still take 2 bags each, because when you are traveling with a lap infant (we didn't have to pay for Peyton yet until he is 2) then you have all their stuff, and everything else you need for a baby. It would have been crazy to try to fit it all in 2 bags under 50 pounds each. Luckily we were able to borrow a car seat from my cousin who lives in Utah, so that we didn't have to try to haul that through the airport as well.

This is the Three cheese garden pizza that I made for appetizers. We ended up making yummy Strawberry Armaretto Pastries for the cooking show. They were so yummy.

Here is me and my cousin Angie. I just love my new job!

Busy, busy, busy

Peyton did his best to break in Unce Dustin and Aunt Jen. I don't think they really knew what a crazy 1 year old would get into. They now know what to expect and what they need to childproof. :)

Peyton loves to stick his sticky fingers on clean windows.

He loves to play with everyone. Even if they are really little. Peyton was doing "This Little Piggy" and doing the "wee-wee-wee-wee all the way home" to Zach.

This is Peyton's very best suspicious look. He was eating jelly beans and dum dums (thanks daddy) and had a blue tongue and sticky fingers.

Check out all of the sticky handprints that were left on the refrigerator. I meant to clean those off before we left and I forgot. Sorry guys.

A Day at the Park

A Day at the park.
While we were in Utah, the weather started out being really nice.
Besides being really windy, it was acutally in the 70s,
so we broke out the shorts and headed to a neighorhood park. Peyton loved it.
It was nice to be able to run around and climb onto things
without being constantly told to get down.
The playground was geared for bigger kids, but that didn't keep Peyton back.

He climbed through the tunnel.

Slid down the curvey slide.
This slide was really neat because it had little bumps and curves
in it so that you would go very fast. Peyton could actually do it
himself with out worrying about going too fast.

I think Zach even enjoyed the park. He got a really nice nap while Peyton played.

Here is Peyton negotiating the rock wall. He really thought he was hot stuff.

Peyton and Zachary...Future Broncos?

Craig is a true Bronco fan. I don't know how many Bronco items that he owns, but I know it is a lot. I also don't think that it is a surprise that Peyton is growing up to be the same way. What did surprise me is that my brother, Dustin, bought his baby a Bronco onesie. So, while we were in Utah visiting, we had to have a Bronco cousin photo shoot. Peyton would only sit by his little 3 month old cousin, Zachary for about 3 seconds, so it was a good thing that we had 2 cameras taking pictures.




Here is little Zachary. The newest Bronco fan to join our family...isn't he so cute! I just love his hair!

Craig and Zachary. By this time, Peyton was long gone! We really planned on getting all three Bronco fans.

Peyton just loved playing with Zach. I think he really wanted Zach to play back. This was the closest that they came to "playing together" with Uncle Dustin's help of course.

Peyton's new friend

It seems like it has been forever since I have blogged anything. And actually it has been a while. We have had computer problems which still aren't 100% fixed, but are much better (thanks honey!). Plus we were in Utah and Idaho for about 10 days visiting with my brother, his wife and our new nephew. We also were able to attend my sister's wedding, but I will be blogging about that hopefully soon. I just wanted to get caught up on a few of my favorite things before then.

These pictures were taken back at the beginning of April.

Peyton for some reason loves my hairdryer. He pulls it eveywhere. I think it is because it has a long cord, but he loves to watch it follow him. He gets it stuck on everything. I tried giving him a toy that is meant to be pulled, but I think the string was too short. I tried adding some length, but it still didn't seem to be a neat as the old hairdryer.


Here is Peyton with his new toy, the hairdryer and my pink comb. Craig says that they aren't very manly toys, but I say, "Hey if he isn't destroying anything, then let him play with it."

Just taking his hairdryer for a walk.

Here is the rejected elephant pull toy. It really wasn't the same.

The hairdryer is just so much fun!

Peyton learned how to climb up on the table today. All done in 4 easy steps.


1.

First you pull yourself up on to the chair. This is the hardest part.

2.

Then stand up on the chair.

3.

Then you pull yourself up on to the table.

4.

Tadah! Easy. Now just don't let mom or dad see you do this or they will make you get down.
Party poopers!

Just having fun outside

We have been having a lot of rain the last few days and Peyton hasn't been able to get outside as much as he wants until yesterday. We went outside and played for a while and waited for Daddy to come home. Peyton loves to get the newspaper and the mail, which we do everyday after his nap and if it is nice, we play outside for a while. Peyton loves to rip out the cheap solar lights that we have in our landscaping, but today I got out the bubbles to see if he liked them. He doesn't. I think they scare him. He would much rather destroy things, throw rocks, dig in the dirt than play with bubbles. Such a boy! He also likes to rearrange furniture, so he moved his little chairs around and around until he found the perfect placement. Oh, and he loved my scooby doo flag. He was pointing at it and saying "ruff ruff". I think it is so cute!

(ps. if you click on the collage it will get bigger so that you can see all of the cute pictures in detail. Some of the pictures aren't that centered because I was blowing bubbles and taking pictures :-)