Merry Christmas!

Wanted to share pictures from Hayes' christmas pageant at church. Hopefully we will have a video to share soon too! Hayes did a great job singing and had fun too! Unfortunately, he was a little sick so he decided he needed to hold a tissue the whole time! Not a big deal though. The pageant was really nice, the kids did a great job.





The boys and I are in PA now getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Chris will be heading north later this morning on the train. We are looking forward to Christmas Eve tonight and celebrating with Nana & Granddaddy at their church. Hayes is especially excited that tonight Santa will come!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas is coming................

Our house is all a flutter with the thought of Christmas fast approaching. This is the first year that Hayes is really getting the whole Christmas experience. He made a Christmas countdown chain at school and never forgets to cut off a ring each night. He even wrote a letter to Santa and got a response! :)


We put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving and the boys really enjoyed putting on the ornaments. We are trying to enjoy all of our christmas decorations for the next 2 weeks, since we will be spending the week of Christmas in Pennsylvania at Nana & Granddaddy's. We are all very excited about this, since it has been 2 years since we have been able to share Christmas Day with Nana & Granddaddy. :)

We know many people forget the true meaning of Christmas with all the hype that happens this time of year, but we are trying hard to keep that true meaning alive at our house. Hayes and I have been talking about Jesus and why Christmas is the celebration of his birth. He was a little confused as to what Santa had to do with it all, but I explained to him that Santa is the spirit of giving and he seemed satisfied with that. :)

We are all eagerly anticipating Hayes' debut in the church Christmas pageant on December 14th. He will be singing with the childrens choir and is quite excited about it. :)

We hope you all are having wonderful holiday seasons!

Thanksgiving

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving now. On Friday, November 21st, Hayes' preschool had a Thanksgiving Feast! It was all the 4 year old classes. The kids performed a few songs all decked out in the Native American gear they created at school and then we all ate together and had fellowship. It was a great time. Hayes did such a great job singing, we were all very proud. :) Bryce especially loved clapping and pointing at Hayes during the performance!



For Thanksgiving we will be having dinner at Mom Mom & Pop's house here in Richmond. Hayes is very excited, but mostly because he knows there will be pumpkin pie! :)

Halloween

This is a little late in coming, but the boys had a great Halloween. Both of them loved putting on their costumes and trick or treating. We stopped by our friends house for a quick visit and then did the houses in our cul-de-sac, it was just enough for the boys. Hayes also participated in a parade and party at his preschool.

Still here!

It has been a little while since I last posted. We are all still here and healthy! Just very busy.

Hayes is busy with preschool, where we went on his first field trip to the Rockwood Park Nature Center. It was a lot of fun! Hayes is also taking karate at the Little Gym, which he seems to enjoy.

Bryce is busy as usual. He has been going with me to MOPS and "playing with the kids," which he enjoys. He and I are also taking a class at the Little Gym, which Bryce loves and Mommy gets worn out at! :)

Chris is busy at work and with his grad school class. Only one more semester to go!!

I am keeping busy too. Ran my first 10k last weekend, which was amazing! Looking forward to doing another one in March. I am also taking 2 classes this semester which have kept me very busy.





Just wanted to give a quick update. We are gearing up for Halloween now. Hayes is counting down the days! :)

Back to School

Yesterday was Hayes' first day back to preschool. He is now in the 4 year old class at Brandermill Church Preschool. He will be going to school 3 mornings a week and so far he loves it. Dropped him off yesterday and he quickly said goodbye to Bryce & I and headed inside. We are so happy he enjoys school so much! Hopefully he will continue to feel that way.

Saying good bye to summer

Since we have officially had Labor Day, I guess you could say summer has come to an end. The boys and I spent our last week of summer in Pennsylvania visiting with my parents. We had a really nice time just hanging out with Nana & Granddaddy, mostly swimming in the pool. We did make one trip to New Hope, PA to ride the New Hope/Ivyland train The boys really enjoyed their train ride and it was actually a pretty relaxing 45 minutes or so for me. :)




We were also able to visit with friends while in Pennsylvania a few from highschool for me and also friends of ours from college who have recently moved to NJ. We had a really nice visit and are sad we may not get back up to PA again until Christmas!

Since the end of summer has come, we are busy getting ready for the fall and all that comes with it. Chris & I have both started back with our classes and Hayes will start preschool again this coming Monday, September 8th. Hayes is very excited about getting back to school and being around kids on a regular basis again.
We are also in the process of having our kitchen renovated. Currently we have the new cabinets in and are waiting to hear when our sink and countertops will be installed. Should be sometime next week! Here is a before picture of the kitchen


And here it is with the new cabinets and paint.



I will update with more progress as soon as it happens. :)

Fun at the River!

This past weekend we spent Saturday-Sunday at my inlaws river house. It was Chris' request for his birthday weekend, he turned 29 on August 10th. We all had such a great time. Hayes especially enjoyed riding on the boat, jet ski and inner tube with Chris. All first times for him! Chris and the boys are heading back there this weekend, while I have a girls weekend at home with a couple of friends from college. I'm sure we will all have great times once again. :)

A trip down south

Yesterday, we got back from a week long road trip to visit family in Mississippi. It's a 14 hour drive from us to them, but we broke the drive into 2 days and it went pretty well. Once in MS, we all had a great time visiting with my Aunt & Uncle. They kept us busy with lots of fun activities.
We went to the Agricultural Museum, The Jackson Zoo, The Museum of Natural Science, a Mississippi Braves game as well as a day trip to visit more family and a game of bowling one day!

As always we ate lots of delicious southern cuisine while there, which both Chris & I really enjoyed. Boys were not all that adventurous to try new things though, big shock there!

We all had a really great time and were sad to leave, but we had to make that 14 hour treck back home.

Now we are getting ready to celebrate Chris' 29th birthday with a weekend trip to the river house! We will be on the go for the next few weeks!

2 years old!!

Today Bryce is 2 years old. I can hardly believe it was 2 years ago today that he made his fast entrance into this world. My baby is turning into a very big boy! And now a look back over the past 2 years. Starting the day he was born, then 1 year old and now a big 2 year old boy!

A new niece, 4th of July and visits with family

On July 1st the newest addition to the Payton side of our family came into this world. My niece, Audrey Jane, was born and is already a cherished member of the family. On the 4th of July we packed up some things and headed down to Winston-Salem, NC where my brother, sister-in-law and nieces live to celebrate the 4th and to meet and welcome Audrey into our family.

The boys had a great time visiting with their cousin, Grace, who is almost 3. And we all enjoyed spending some family time together. We are hoping to get down again soon so we can watch Audrey grow! :)

Boys Bday Party

On June 28th we had a birthday party for both of our boys. Started out at The Little Gym for a ton of fun with friends and then back to our house to celebrate with family with a pizza dinner and playing. Both boys had a great time and loved having friends and family there to help celebrate!

4 years old!!

It's hard to believe but Hayes is 4 years old today! I can still remember quite well getting to the hospital around 11 pm on June 29th and his arrival the next morning. He had a great birthday weekend with a party and lots of visitors, but I will post about that later. For now a look back at Hayes through the last 4 years. Newborn, 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old and now a 4 year old!

Summer Days

Not a whole lot to report around here. We are enjoying our summer. The boys and I spent a week in PA visiting my parents and enjoying their pool. Both boys had a great time especially Hayes who did not want to leave! We also got to celebrate my nephew's 3rd birthday with him which was quite a treat. :)




Now we are preparing for the boys birthday party which will be this Saturday, June 28th! We have a ton of family coming into town for it so we will have a full house! Just can't believe Hayes is almost 4 years old and Bryce is almost 2 years old! Where has the time gone?!

Sports Skills Show Day at The Little Gym

Today was Hayes' last day of his sports skills class at The Little Gym. Family and friends were invited to join in the class in order for the kids to show what they had learned. Hayes loved having an audience and really showed off. Bryce had a blast running around the gym and playing. I think he was just so happy to finally get to go in the big room! Hayes really has learned a lot about the various sports they played in the class, like hockey, golf and baseball. He received a medal at the end of class and was very excited about that. To celebrate, we went to our favorite mexican restaurant for lunch which Mom Mom treated us to! Thanks Mom Mom!

A first injury

We spent the majority of Memorial Day weekend at Chris' parents house on the Rappahannock River. The boys love going there and spending their days running around, playing in the sand and water and helping Mom Mom & Pop do things. Unfortunately, Bryce got his first somewhat big injury while we were there. He tripped and fell face first into a wooden bench and has quite the black eye because of it. Bryce was upset when it happened, but seems unphased by it now. I think it bothers us to look at it more than it hurts him.