August 24, 2010

Day 2 of School

This mornings drop off was not as smooth as yesterdays. Sean did the drop off this morning, since he will be doing it daily, and of course the tears were flowing. She threw her backpack on the ground and begged him to stay. Of course the softy that he is he stayed a bit.

Pick up went great! Payten was playing with her little friends and didn't even notice I was there. Her teacher said she did great and she even told her when she had to use the potty. So hopefully next week we can go back to undies and ditch the pull ups. :-)

I am absolutely loving my new work schedule and even Camryn is adjusting. Having the evenings have off has been wonderful! I look forward to 4:00p and spending the rest of the day with the girls and the hubby. Happy Tuesday!

August 23, 2010

Day 1: First Day of School

Day 1 was a success! Of course there was a little crying here and there but that's to be expected. Payten loved her new backpack, even though its almost the size of her. LOL. Hopefully tomorrow things will be even better. :-) Happy Monday!


August 22, 2010

Beach Day

Today was one of those typical Florida days when you just don't know how the weather is going to be. The weather man says 80% chance of storms but there is not one cloud in the sky. We decided to take the risk and head down to Siesta Key beach. I am so glad we did because it was absolutely beautiful!

Uncle Dave & Aunt Laura loved it! We spent most of the time in the water since it was a hot one but the water is unbelievably warm! My parents even came to join us for some beach fun. It was definitely a great way to spend our last "official" summer day before school begins tomorrow.

With that said... where did my day go? Of course I should have been home getting together but I decided to wait last minute and just go and have fun. I have been rushing around all evening to make sure things are ready for the morning. I am hoping Payten's first day goes nice and smooth tomorrow. I will be sure to post all about it.

Happy Sunday!





August 21, 2010

Busy, busy day. . .

Today has been one of those busy busy days! From the time we got up this morning we have not stopped! In the midst of all the errands that we ran, we squeezed in some time to have fun at Garrick's Carnival Birthday Party!

Payten had a blast! Some of the games were a little big for her but she loved the hula hoop contest. Although she has not perfected the hula hoop, she still has fun trying. :-)


The Birthday Boy Garrick!

The kids lining up for the games

Payten trying her hula hoop skills!

Love this face!

Payten & Camryn's Uncle David and Aunt Laura arrived tonight from Wisconsin, so we will be spending the day at the beach tomorrow. We might even try para sailing. I'll be sure to post tomorrow evening of our fun day :-) Happy Saturday!

August 20, 2010

Open House

Tonight was Open House for Payten's new school. It gave the parents and kids an opportunity to meet their new teacher and see the classroom they would be in. Payten seemed to like it. But Monday will be the true test. Her teacher Miss Cathy seems great. We look forward to see what the school year brings.

Just a few quick photos before we headed off to Open House. She is just too much these days.

August 19, 2010

Updates & Changes, lots of them!

This is going to be one of those posts that is a bunch of hodge podge (is that even a word?). It's been a while since I have posted updates and there are a lot of changes coming up in the next week, BIG CHANGES but good ones!

Let's start with Payten's potty training adventure. It's almost been 5 weeks (still can't believe that), and she's been doing extremely well! I am actually pretty surprised. The first few days were a disaster! One second she would go on the potty and the next she would pee a puddle in the middle of my family room (luckily its hardwood floors, or else we'd be in trouble). After week 1 I just wanted to give up. But everyone kept telling me to stick it out a bit longer and see how she does. She now tells us when she has to go potty, instead of us asking her a million and one times, don't get me wrong we still ask but nearly as much since she communicates with us about it. With each day she gets better and better. I hate to jinx it but its been days without one single accident! She even poops on the potty! Woot woot! There are a few times here and there that she just doesn't quite make it to the potty but she's trying. She wears undies all day long, but when we venture out and for naptime and bedtime she wears a pull-up. I think she is about ready to do the undies thing when we go out but I am so afraid! I know I have to overcome this fear but I think it'll be a few more weeks before I do so. I am extremely proud of her potty training process and hope that the end is in our near future!!! But to be honest, thinking about doing this all over again with Camryn makes me want to hire a personal potty training assistant, LOL.

I know I mentioned it in my last post but Camryn finally has her first TOOTH, actually she has two! My girls always seem to be late bloomers when getting their teeth in. Camryn is exactly one week behind when Payten got her first tooth. I am still trying to get a picture of them, but the little stinker won't let me get a good look. :-( She is also finally sleeping through the night, well at least for most nights. Camryn has definitely not been as good as a sleeper as Payten but she's getting there. Hopedully she continues with these 12+ hour nights, it makes the hubby and I super happy :-) Camryn is eating lots of table food these days. Her favorite is chicken and cranberry sauce! She just can't get enough of it, its too funny. I hope she continues eating table food so well, I would love to ditch the baby food!

Okay for the changes.... Monday is Payten's first day of school! I am full of so many emotions about this. I am happy, excited, sad, all in one. I know at first it will be an adjustment for her but I know she will love it. I am sad that she is growing up so fast! Where did my little baby go? How can she be 2 1/2 already? It feels like I just brought her home from the hospital. I know she will love learning new things and making lots of friends, especially since she is miss social butterfly. I will be sobbing for the first week at least :-( Since Payten will be in school for several hours a day, I have decided to go back to working days. The night schedule has really gotten to me and most of all its affecting our family. My wonderful friend Tammy will be watching Camryn for us a few hours a day so that I can go back to working days. I owe her FOREVER! (wink wink) As a family we are really looking forward to our new schedule next week. Wish us lots of luck because we sure are going to need it!

Along with Payten starting school she will begin her first dance class next Saturday as well. It is a combination class of both tap and ballet. Since little miss thing loves to shake her booty every opportunity she can, I really think she is going to love it. I will be sure to post pictures of how it goes :-)

I think that's it for now... This post is a lot longer then I had intended. Stay tuned next week to lots of posts about our progress of our new schedule!

Please Vote: Only a few days to vote for my girls. Please click on the picture below. "Like" JenStevenson Photo first, then "Like" the picture! Thank you everyone :-)


August 17, 2010

Wordless Wednesday



Please Vote!


The girls are trying to win a FREE Photo Session with Jen Stevenson Photo. Please click on the picture above (it's a direct link), "Like" JenStevenson Photo first on facebook, then "Like" the picture of my girls. The most votes by Friday, the 20th wins the contest! Thank you fellow bloggers :-)

August 16, 2010

Our Weekend

I have been such a bad blogger lately. . Every time I sit down to write a post I get distracted with something else or one of the girls are calling my name. So my new goal is to start writing up my posts when they are in bed for the evening. Let's see if it works.

This weekend it's been mostly just the girls and I. The hubby had his wisdom teeth extracted on Friday so he spent his weekend in bed. The girls and I did some back to school shopping for Payten. We have been on a hunt for closed toe shoes which living in Florida they are hard to find, well cute ones at least :-) It was nice to have a weekend of just girl time. Last night Payten asked if we could take a wagon ride, so I loaded the girls up and off we went. Despite the heat and mosquito's we made it around the neighborhood a few times.

After the wagon ride I decided to take out my camera and practice a bit. We have a beach vacation planned for a couple of weeks and I would love to get some pictures of the girls when we are there. I am hoping with practicing these next few weeks I'll be able to get a few good ones of them.

Some exciting news this weekend... Camryn has two teeth now! It is crazy that they just popped out of nowhere. YAY she finally has teeth! I thought I was going to have a toothless kid, haha!



Camryn just loves to clap now! It's too cute!