Peyton is 18 months old now! Crazy!She had her 18 month check up a couple of weeks ago and the doctor is more than happy with how she is growing and developing. She is just over 23 pounds and still pretty tall (87%)!She is such a precious little girl and is super silly and loving and so strong willed at the same time! It makes me laugh for so many reasons!Honestly...where has the time gone. Isn't she adorable!
Last March...6 months old!
18 months old (before her haircut)!
So while I was in Canada Peyton was home with John. So he wouldn't have to take off from work we had two amazing friends watch Peyton for us. We are so blessed to have such a great community around us and thankful that they watched Peyton so I could attend the funeral and John could work.Check out pictures from her day at with the Shelton's and the Perry's!!
Craziness...it is what to describe these past couple of weeks. We were in Vancouver for the Olympics/visiting family, flew home to Houston and up to Buffalo around 12 hours later to drive to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada for my grandfather's funeral and then back home a couple of days later. So...I am behind on my blogging and will be working this week on updating!
We celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday by going out to lunch at Chuy's, some window shopping at some of my favorite stores (Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel etc) and then seeing Avatar in Imax! It was a great day together and Avatar was amazing! I am still in disbelief how someone could come up with that! We normally don't do gifts so I was really surprised when John gave me an iPod shuffle! I have a regular iPod but it is huge and really a pain to run with. The shuffle is so small and can just clip onto my shirt! Since I always have pre made running play lists I can upload one and off I go! I can not wait to go for a run with it!We went to my parent's to pick Peyton up and stayed to watch most of the Vancouver Olympic Opening ceremonies with them and while we were watching came up with the crazy idea that Peyton and I should go up to Vancouver! So...my parents have planned a trip to the Olympics for over a year. They have tickets to events and were leaving this upcoming Friday, the 19th. I was telling my mom how 
seeing the Olympics in Canada made me miss my family up there (who I haven't seen since our wedding and I haven't been to Vancouver in over 6 years). She looked at me and said, "why don't you come with us?" Well, I didn't give it too much thought because of the craziness of it but when we got home, I brought it up to John and he actually didn't think it was too mad. We looked at the prices for tickets and all the other expenses and then I made sure to look at what Peyton and I could do together since my parents would be busy with events for three days. I saw that the transportation system is amazing and very well prepared for the Olympics and there are tons of Olympic and non Olympic things we could do that would be appropriate for Peyton.
So...Saturday night I booked our flights and we leave this Friday! Craziness! I am so incredibly excited and feel so blessed that I get to see my family in Vancouver! I am so excited and the whole Olympic experience is an added bonus. We are flying in and out of Seattle so we will be spending a short time there as well which is exciting. Remember the last time I visited Seattle? I was 26 weeks pregnant! It is another surreal experience that this time I have a 17 month old and the last time I was huge! Can't wait to show her the original Starbucks store and I found a Children's Museum we could check out if she is not into the whole market experience.
So after booking the flights I started thinking about packing etc and realized that Peyton's coat is really just a Texas coat and since I was very confident that I would not find something in Texas in February...I found one online from LL Bean and ordered it with Express shipping to be here on Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest)! I was really impressed with their Outerwear for kids and need to remember that for next year. We have some friends that gave us a bunch of random clothes earlier in the year that their daughter grew out of and in that stash was some ski pants from LL Bean (which gave me the idea to look there for the coat)! How awesome and convenient is that! It is not that cold there and we won't need them unless we decided go to the mountains but it is nice to have.
I also borrowed a portable DVD player from some friends which saved us from going out and buying one and also is going to help so much! I also went on a search for boots for Peyton. Nothing too heavy duty but something a little better than tennis shoes. I stayed up until midnight Saturday researching where I could possibly find some and went out on Sunday and found one pair in her size in the whole area and I was told when I asked about a bigger size...the only ones in all of Houston! Crazy! I was having a hard time finding stuff online too so I am glad we found those and they were only $10.
We finished up our errands for the trip today and will be having a busy week before we leave Friday. We have to clean up the house, go and exchange money at our bank downtown (normally I ordered it online and they deliver it but it was too late for that), laundry, get everything ready at work for being gone and pack...all before we leave at 6:45 AM Friday morning!Please pray that we have a good week getting ready and for a safe and smooth trip...did I mention that I am flying up there with my parents but am flying home ALONE with Peyton! So lots of prayer for patience and just a good trip together.
I am so excited!!!!!
OFFER TAKEN BY MY FRIEND LAURA! I AM SO EXCITED!
So I want to RUN!
There is a Half Marathon/Marathon coming up March 20-21 in Seabrook which is down the road from us. On the 20th there is the option of running the Half Marathon (which is probably too much for me) or doing a relay (which is perfect). There is a 10k the weekend before but honestly, they don't give out cool stuff like shirts and my favorite thing...a medal!
The event is the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and I need a partner! Let me know if you are interested or else John might have to do it and when I brought it up last night he looked less than interested!
So this mild sickness I started feeling on Monday has turned into a full blown, leave me on the couch sick! I know that I am pretty much a baby when it comes to being sick and I really don't handle it all but this time I have really been beat up by this. Tuesday I stayed home from work and sent Peyton to school, Wednesday my parents watched Peyton in the morning and John came home early and then today I am home again from work and Peyton is at school. I have a doctors appointment in an hour so hopefully I can get some good medicine to kick this.Anyways...John took Peyton for me to school this morning. He wanted me to be able to sleep in and one of car's (the one he drives to work) had a flat tire so he had to wait for them to open anyways. Since I pretty much handle school completely, John was asking me what to make sure to bring etc. he was fine until I said he had to dress her and then he looked scared. He got some paper and started writing down everything that she needed to wear and bring.
Well, they got out the door and to school (I don't know what she is wearing so I don't know how successful it was) and while I was making lunch I saw his piece of paper and started laughing....
Notice the last two items...socks and shoes...I didn't tell him socks and shoes because I assumed that those were a given but I guess he wanted to make sure he didn't forget anything. Got to love dads!!
Today Peyton and I woke up and I am feel sick! I have a very sore throat, stuffed up nose and just feeling icky. Peyton is fine and has been amazing all morning playing by herself, cuddling with mommy and just being very sweet. I adore her!Well, later in the morning she decided she wanted to check and see if there was any laundry to be done (she loves doing laundry among other chores) and she found a sweet note from Daddy! It said how much he loved her and how he appreciated her helping mommy out! She was so interested in the note and after I read it to her several times she would sit there and read it out loud in her own language. She is so cute!
Later on I found three notes to me from John which were all very sweet and appreciated!A great start to our week...minus me being sick!
Last March...6 months old!
18 months old (before her haircut)!
After naps we headed to Pikes Market where I was again reminded how much I LOVE Seattle. I fell deeply in love with that city. We walked around and experienced the atmosphere and some yummy ice cream. We walked down by the water and had some seafood for dinner and then walked the insane hills while pushing Peyton home to the hotel. I figured that was my leg workout for the week!
The next day we all packed up and headed to the Space Needle first and took in the sights of Seattle and the scenery...beautiful! Did I say again how much I want to live there! Following the Space Needle we drove towards the border, exploring Bellingham and Blaine on our way. Washington is such a beautiful state. We crossed the border late that day and into Vancouver shortly later.
We LOVED our time in Vancouver! I loved seeing my family and spending time up there. Just like Seattle, Vancouver was amazing and I fell in LOVE! Do you see a pattern of wanting to live in the Pacific Northwest? We had great weather and even the couple of rainy days didn't detour me from wanting to move. 
One day my Aunt Maureen and I took Peyton to the aquarium which I was a little hesitant about doing because I wasn't sure whether she would like it but she LOVED it. Her favorite exhibits were the floor to ceiling tropical fish tank and this tank that had sharks and turtles. She was so happy to watch the fish. Since it was pretty empty she was able to run around and go wherever she wanted to. It was a great outing!
On Thursday Peyton and I went with my dad and Shannon to the Women's Gold Medal Hockey Game! It was an amazing experience and even better since CANADA WON! Peyton did pretty well watching until the fog horn went off for the goal and she was very upset and I managed to calm her down until it went off again and it went downhill from there. She made it through the game but we walked the concourse for the medal ceremony. She was so cute during the game though and would cheer with everyone and had eyes as big as saucers!
Our trip was wonderful but unfortunately we received the sad news that my Grandfather, Morris Topping, who lived in Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada (North of Toronto) passed away on Wednesday night. He had fallen on Christmas Eve breaking his hip and had recovered from that and the surgery associated with it but had complications with his bowels and had surgery Monday and died from complications.
seeing the Olympics in Canada made me miss my family up there (who I haven't seen since our wedding and I haven't been to Vancouver in over 6 years). She looked at me and said, "why don't you come with us?" Well, I didn't give it too much thought because of the craziness of it but when we got home, I brought it up to John and he actually didn't think it was too mad. We looked at the prices for tickets and all the other expenses and then I made sure to look at what Peyton and I could do together since my parents would be busy with events for three days. I saw that the transportation system is amazing and very well prepared for the Olympics and there are tons of Olympic and non Olympic things we could do that would be appropriate for Peyton.
So I want to RUN! 
After the party we went to Lowe's to look around at outdoor stuff since once it finally stops freezing around here we have serious work on our backyard. Our poor plants all look awful from all of the random freezes despite being covered. I think there was one night it dropped down close to freezing and I forgot to cover them and they just had it. 
