First off, sorry for not keeping the site up to date recently. Life has been extremely busy for all of us. I’ll start with an update on the website.. As you can see, there is a new design. What you may not notice is that I have changed the software the runs the photo gallery. You will hopefully notice some improvement on the loading speed of the images in the new gallery.

Paige

Paige continues to improve on her communication skills every day. She holds very mature conversations with others and loves to talk on the phone. She likes to tell her Mommy that “When I am a Mommy I will…” and then say whatever it is that Mommy does that she doesn’t get to do or like to do. (When I am a Mommy I will like my vegetables, or I will be able to drive) Hope told Paige on day that Paige was “pushing her buttons.” Paige looked at Hope very confused and said “Mommy I’m not pushing any buttons.” Some things are still lost on her, however it ends up being quite funny anyway. Paige is learning her days of the week by associating what happens on each day. Tuesday is trash day, Wednesday is water day (at school) Friday is candy day (at the end of the school day, each child gets a piece of candy).

Peyton

Peyton has grown beyond all belief. It is hard to believe that he is only 16 months old with as big as he is. He will pass his sister in size before too much longer. He is now running everywhere and full of energy. He is able to jump, and has a pretty good vocabulary for someone of his age. He will always let you know when he is hungry, or if something is “mine!”

Hope & Chris

Hope is branching out with her skills at work. During the month of May, instead of working on the burn service she worked on the trauma service at ORMC and this month she is working on the ICU team. This will make her a more rounded provider, which is never a bad thing.

I have transfered stations, and now no longer work on the same shift. I now work on the east side of town, which is a little bit of a drive for me, but only having to do it twice a week, it isn’t too bad. I am also now a Paramedic with the fire department.

I believe that the gallery is working again.

Currently the Photo Gallery isn’t working. I will fix this as quickly as I can.

Well I am a huge slacker. The whole family has been so busy. Chris and I went a cruise without Paige and Peyton in September. It was difficult to be without them but enjoyable. Nana and Papa enjoyed having quality time with the kids. It was nice to have quality time with Chris since it hard to come by with such busy lives. We were able to get over to the condo at Ormond Beach and spend time with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Troy and Abbie. We didn’t catch any sharks this time. We were able to go see Memaw and Papa at their house in Fort Meyers. My Aunt Penny from Maryland was visiting and we wanted to spend some time with her. It was nice to see their new house in south Florida. Our biggest trip by far was to Virginia the end of October. We went to a timeshare resort called Massanutten. The drive was too long and fairly miserable. The resort was very nice. We made sure to have many family meals. Nana is a great cook! The leaves were beautiful and we got to feel some nice cold weather. We missed snow by one county. At the end of the week Chris and I went to Richmond for a burn conference. We really got to see a lot of Virginia and made some important decisions about the big move to Virginia. We picked up the kids for a night drive back to Florida. (Thank you daddy!) We decided driving during the day with kids is too miserable for words. So many life changes on the horizon…all positive but scary!

Most recently we all went to daddy’s fire station Christmas party. Paige and Peyton both got a book form Santa Claus. Paige had her first boyfriend. She and the same boy played together all night. It was quite cute. There were so many kids there and everyone seemed to have a good night. We have the Christmas tree up and the kids helped. Paige and I put together a ginger bread house the other night. She enjoyed eating the candy!

The kids are doing well. It feels weird calling them kids but Peyton just isn’t a baby any more. He is huge. He has had so many changes since I last posted I am not sure where to begin. He is going to college next week. Oh, I guess it hasn’t been quite that long. He doesn’t sleep. He still gets up at night once or twice and wakes earlier than I would like in the morning. He only takes one nap of maybe 1 ½ hours. Meanwhile Paigie still takes a three hour nap daily. They are such different children. He is eating table foods and eats anything we give him. He loves to feed himself like a big boy. He does this whole body shake with a huge smile when you give something new. It starts at his head and moves to his toes. He has starting exacting revenge on Paigie for all the torture thus far. He pulls her hair and loves to see her react. If anyone lies on the ground he will attack! He is like a little bulldozer. His favorite song is ‘If Your Happy and You Know It’. If it starts to play or you start singing it he will immediately smile and start clapping. Obviously I love this instant mood elevating tactic. He has 7 teeth and likes to bite. He said his first word…..mama. He still says it to me only when I try to leave a room and he disapproves. Babies are very strategic in how they operate. He had his 9 month check up and all was well. He was huge. 29 inches and 21+ pounds. We went ahead and made him forward facing because he was too long for an infant seat. Now Paige and Peyton have matching car seats in both cars that will last them until they are in high school. Peyton has gone from cruising and standing very well to walking. He will walk a couple of feet then decide to crawl because it is faster. He is very good at transitioning from sitting, kneeling and crawling to standing. He seems to understand that it is cute when he is walking because he will start clapping as he walks with a huge smile on his face. He can waive bye-bye. Baby proofing for him was a must! He would not stay out of the cabinets. He is so fast that I couldn’t work in the kitchen without putting him in baby jail. I like him to be out and playing so we had a company baby proof the cabinets for us. They did a great job and now I can let him play in the kitchen while I work.

Paige is such a talker! She can carry on a conversation with anyone anywhere. She will frequently ask strangers their name and then talk with them at Publix. She talks on the phone so well. She listens and responds with appropriate comments. Her length of memory has expanded and she can remember things from even weeks ago. She has great insight into topics and asks such smart questions. She recognizes complicated shapes, many letters and numbers and can count to 25. She has finally started calling herself Paige instead of Sage or Sheshe. If you call her either she will correct you and tell you her name is Paige. The early sibling rivalry has continued and we keep it in check as much as we can. She loves her brother and that is why she has to beat him. She enjoys any park time with mommy. She has really blossomed at the new school. While we enjoyed the last school, this school is definitely a major improvement for Paige. She is fully potty trained in the daytime and wears a pull up or diaper for sleeping. She is growing into this little person right in front of me. We have started doing more arts and crafts at home. She seems to really enjoy them at school so we invested in all sorts of glitter, beads and accessories. Her love for Elmo has stayed in place and she carries her baby around with us frequently. She knows who a lot of the commercial characters are in the toy isles but I have kept her from watching Nickelodeon and other commercial TV channels. She watches PBS and Sprout shows.

Chris has been working a lot of overtime and has had some huge checks. That will help us get our bills paid! We are all very excited and stressed preparing for Christmas and both kids birthday parties. There is a lot of work to do and I know Paige cannot stop talking about her party. Then mommy has to take her boards in February. So many things to do with very little time to do them. We will post soon.

Height 29 inches
Weight 21 lbs 13 oz
Head Circumference 46 1/2 cm

Peyton and I spent the day together.. He doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so the day didn’t go as well as I had hoped, however, he did take two steps for me this afternoon! He seemed just as supprised as I was.

I added 38 new pictures today, so please check them out.. I have also redesigned the website again. Hopefully there won’t be a problem with posts not displaying like there was on the last site.

Well another month has flown by. We have been busy with all sorts of stuff. The kids and I have been going to Gatorland on weekend mornings. I have lived in Florida since I was a kid and had never been. Now that I have kids I have been twice in the last month. It’s a nice little half day if you get there early. They have a playground, train and a water area that Paigie really loves. Not to mention alligators, turtles and snakes of course.

Chris’s fire station has started a tradition of doing a barbecue once a month rotating between different peoples homes. The first was in Port St John near Cocoa. It was a fun day. Paige played in the pool with their daughter Maddie. We also went to a one year old B-day party for another firefighter at Daddy’s station. George has 4 boys and they are hilarious and the food was great.

We had family pictures done. (see the photo section) It only took three settings to get it done. Yup….that was fun , glad it is only once a year. Paige and Peyton started at a new school this month. They are going to the same preschool that Chris went to when he was a kid. There are a lot of adjustments for mommy but overall we are happy with the change. The major benefits are it is closer and they open earlier. Paige’s behavior seems better at the new school. Now if I could only get her to nap consistently. The second day of school was canceled because of Hurricane Faye. Faye really didn’t bring much to Orlando but a lot of rain. It rained really heavily for five days and we had to keep wasting the water from the pool.

Daddy got his degree from Valencia…I am so proud. I have a copy of it hanging on my door at work. He is taking this semester off school and has been working a lot of overtime. While the paychecks are good, we miss daddy. Mommy had a minor surgery this month. I was happy to be done with it; I got a hernia when I was pregnant with Paige.

Peyton has been very busy changing this month. He started the month by sitting very well. Then he was pulling up and now he is cruising. He can crawl up the step in the living room and even more impressively down the step with only minor traumatic moments. He is trying to climb Paige’s bathroom step at the sink….mommy’s not ready for that yet. He is very strong and can move almost anywhere he wants to. He is eating everything in sight and is about to start protein. He continues to eat at night but is very efficient. He is all business; he eats and then goes right back to sleep. We had a problem with him standing up in his crib and not being able to get back down this month which I seem to remember with Paige as well. While it only lasted a week or so it was very painful for Peyton and mommy. He can get down form standing now without any problems.

He is very talkative and babbles in a conversational manner. It is very cute. He thinks he is talking. The new school seems OK for Peyton. They don’t seem to show as much affection as the previous school caregivers. We miss the baby room at Friends’ Academy . He also got a GI bug (pukey dukies) the first week at the new school. It didn’t seem to bother him much except he didn’t eat his solids…just milk and a lot of diaper changes. He still doesn’t seem to have any desire to have teeth. I will miss his gummy smile when he does finally get teeth. I truly love Peyton and we seem to have a great bond.

Paige has been busy becoming a big girl. Mommy got her ear pierced this month. Paigie got to watch. She loves to play with it and is very curious. When asked if she wants her ears pierced she says “later”. She was taking a ballet class one day a week and decided she didn’t want to continue. So we played at the park and haven’t been back since. We were going to stop in a week anyways. She continues to speak well and is really showing a deeper understanding of things. She keeps asking about the pretty girl they keep showing on the news. (Casey Anthony) She asks why she is on the TV. I told her that they cannot find her because her mommy is a bad mommy. She paused for a good 30 seconds and says, “mommy…you are a good mommy.” And just when they break your heart they try to break your spirit. She has thrown a few good sized temper tantrums this month. She is not napping at the new school consistently. We continue to work on her behavior. She is very smart. She can count to at least 25, recognizes and can write many letters. She understands that she is two but doesn’t seem to understand what that really means. She is an adventurous eater and is very strong and brave when she plays. I continue to see so many excellent qualities in her and love her so much.

The doctor said surgery went well. We should be headed home soon.

Today is Hope’s long awaited hernia surgery. Both Paige and Peyton know that something is going on, but neither of them understand what. I took tomorrow off to stay home and take care of Hope and the kids. I’ll do another update after the surgery.