FOURTH OF JULY-PAYTON STYLE

We celebrated the 4th of July this year by heading down by the river to the "Fort Worth Fourth Celebration". Payton had such a wonderful time! He loves to be outside anyway but out here there was so much to see and do. We laid out a blanket up at the top of the hill where we had a good view of all the action. Then we would take turns running down the hill to get more watermelon, refills, snacks or jump in the bounce house. It was his first official picnic. The only bummer was that the "big" fireworks would not start until the baseball game was over. We finally gave up and beat the traffic out of there at 10:30. We found out later that they didn't start until after midnight. Payton had a blast anyway and got to see some small "works" as he called them.

"cheeeeese"

Payton came back from one of his trips down the hill for ice cream that his dad had bought him a laser sword. "WOW!"

some of the smaller "works"

Payton at play

I decided there was no way I could pick just 1 theme and only 3 or 4 pictures for this post. Instead I have chosen several of my favorites from this last month. Payton has been very busy! He has a play date at the water park every wednesday during the summer. Dad had the day off and was able to join us, to Payton's great excitement, this past week.

He braved the slide...sort of. I kinda pushed him down against his will but his

daddy was there to catch him.

There is nothing like an afternoon nap on the couch with dad.

from left to right: Bear Blank, MoMo, Payton (with Pass and Rubbee)

Goggy & Pooh all cuddled under blanket.

"Cheese" this outfit belonged to his uncle "Chachi" when he was Payton's age.

If you put Payton outside and give him some water he is a happy boy!

Notice the lawn mower in the bath tub. This kid is serious about his yard work.

Out in the backyard with his girls.

A favorite summer time snack. "A peach a peach!"

donuts, coffee & the paper

Well, the coffee was for me. Payton does not need any caffeine! Of course he really didn't need the sugar either. I couldn't resist though. Every kid needs to wake up on a Sunday morning and have a sprinkle donut waiting for them at least once in their life. After he was finished eating he enjoyed perusing the Sutherland's catalog looking for new lawn equipment...really! (See the previous post)

Mowing! Mowing!

Payton LOOOVES to "work" in the yard with his dad, or his Papa, or just by himself! He has his own rakes, shovels, tools, wheelbarrow, buckets, a wagon and various other utensils he finds a use for on a daily basis. If it were up to him he would stay outside all day long. If he is "out" he is happy. Yesterday he actually got to "help" with the mowing. He was so serious about it. Little does he realize that this will be his chore all to soon.

itsy bitsy spider...

PAYTON IS NOW 18 MONTHS OLD. I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT! WE ARE SO AMAZED, IMPRESSED AND ENAMOURED BY HIM. HE COMES UP WITH SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY TO ADD TO HIS RESUME. ONE THING HE LOVES TO DO IS SING SONGS. BELOW ARE PICTURES OF HIM PERFORMING ONE OF HIS ALL TIME FAVORITES, ENJOY!

THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER

WENT UP THE WATER SPOUT.

DOWN CAME THE RAIN &

WASHED THE SPIDER OUT.

OUT CAME THE SUN &

DRIED UP ALL THE RAIN

AND THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER

WENT UP THE SPOUT AGAIN.

17 months going on 21

Can I just say that "I love being a mom!" I am so smitten with this little angel. Sometimes I think I need a break and then I can't bear to be away from him. He is growing and learning so fast that it's hard to keep up. He is talking non stop, working on perfecting his jumping and dancing, learning to read (he can read the words 'baby' and 'hi')...I'm not kidding! He remembers all the neighbors names, as well as the mail man's, and keeps a watch for them through the front window. Nothing happens that he doesn't know about. Most of all he likes to "Go!" doesn't matter where as long as we're going somewhere. If he is outside he is a happy boy. Here are a few pictures from this last month. When your kid is this cute it is hard to choose just a few!

Picking flowers for mom...of course.

snack time!

How sweet is this? Don't you just want to squish him?!

He always has that mouth open, always talking.


What an angel!

"broweeez"

"brownies"

President "BaBaMa"

Today the 44th President of the United States of America was sworn into office. No mater your party, no matter your race, no matter your religion, Barack H. Obama is the God ordained leader of our country. You cast your vote but now it is time to stand behind, support and pray for our leader and our country.

Payton was very excited by all the fanfare on the TV today. He loves music, parades and action. It was the cutest thing to listen to him sing along with Aretha Franklin as she sang the National Anthem. In the picture below he was pointing and saying "BaBaMa".

Payton's Papa remembers a time when there where 2 separate water fountains, 2 laundry mats, one with a sign in the window that read "whites only", people of color in the balcony of the movie theater and whites in the lower level, the color of your skin determining your seat on the bus or your place in line. I thank God that Payton won't remember things like that! He can look back at these pictures and remember that the first African American President was elected in his lifetime and wonder why we all thought that was so amazing.

Poor guy couldn't stay awake for the after party. He did manage to catch the performance by Sting and Stevie Wonder, which he quite enjoyed!