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.

Mother's Day Tea

Today Hayes' class had a Mother's Day Tea for all the mother's & grandmothers of the children. The children sang songs for us, presented us with gifts and then we had a nice snack and chat with them. It was very sweet and so well done. Hayes' preschool teachers are amazing! Hayes was quite excited that his Mom Mom (Chris' Mom) and I were at his school! :)

Cowboy

Hayes' preschool did a spring photo session and the theme was cowboys. While I found this a little odd when I first heard about it, the pictures turned out really well. They even had pony's for the kids to sit on!

A trip to the zoo and daily life

We have been trying to take advantage of the warm spring weather we have been having and doing as much as possible outside.
The boys and I spend every free morning we can at a playground and today the whole family ventured out to the The Metro-Richmond Zoo.
The boys had a nice time, Chris & Hayes rode the sky ride which Bryce wasn't very happy about. He does not like to be left out!

The boys also played on some of the smaller rides before we left, although Bryce was not a fan of those either as you can see in one of the pictures.






Our spring has been going very well. Chris is enjoying mowing the grass again and working out in the yard. He & Hayes planted some seeds and are growing sunflowers, basil and chives. Hayes is actually pretty fascinated by it. He likes to check them everyday to see how much they have grown.

The boys are doing well and both growing so much every day. Bryce is talking more and more and even trying to joke with us. He also loves to sing and is getting closer to being able to sing all of the ABC's. He also loves to dance and jump right now.

Hayes is still loving preschool. I know he will be sad when he has a few months off at the end of May. But he will be going to summer camp in July, plus doing swim lessons and lots of outside playtime during the summer.

Chris is busy with work. Both his daytime job and with his newly started consulting firm, Fauerbach Consulting.

We are both envisioning some home improvement projects and have been working on little things here and there. We are getting ready to do some painting soon though.

I am mostly busy with the boys on a day to day basis. I will be taking 2 classes over the summer that will go towards working on my teaching licensure. I have also acquired a new passion for jogging/running and plan on doing my first 5k in October!

We hope you all are enjoying your springs as well!