Happy Halloween 2012

Last Friday we took Payton to Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland. She really understands the holiday's this year so it was a ton of fun. She couldn't decide what she wanted to be so Gram made her a pirate costume. Payton loved it.

Disneyland was a ton of fun as usual. Payton danced with Chip and Dale and rode her first real roller coaster. Big Thunder Mountain. She saw the Choo Choo train and wanted to go. I figured she clears the height requirement by a good couple inches so what the hey? She'll love it or it will be the last Choo Choo she rides for a while. Well, she LOVED it. We also hit a couple kiddy rides and Star Tours. She really enjoyed all the rides. I think she might just be my best Disneyland buddy yet. Lets not forget about Rapunzel!!! 

The entire drive to Disneyland, while parking, tram ride and into the park. 'Mommy lets go see Rapunzel, Mommy lets go see Rapunzel' it was on constant repeat. So, that was the first stop so we were good the rest of the night.

Payton talked my dad into going and dressing up like Indiana Jones :) I think he had fun. Hey, free candy and not just for the kids! 

More princesses. I really tried hard not to really encourage the princess stage but I guess it's the whole rebelling thing. But she loves her fair share of Peter Pan and the pirates too so... It's manageable. I'm just embracing it now. :) 

We were looking forward to the Halloween fireworks but the Santa Ana winds decided to join us and we missed out :(

But the parade carried on and was fun too. We had a great time and think we might have a new Halloween tradition. And it may include group costumes next year because wow, these people go way out and have amazing costumes. 

Mommy's Day 2012

Happy Mother's day to all the mom's and alike. Payton and I enjoyed a nice relaxed day. Some video chatting with the family back in California included. Being a military family and so far away, video chatting really helps get us through till we can see them again. We decided to get one more park trip in before I have foot surgery this week.

I love these moments with her. 

Payton is slightly (ha! understatement) obsessed with drums. If there aren't any around, she makes some. Luckily there are bongos at the park. Only way I can peel her from the swings.

My little pirate girl. Arrrgggh!

Can't get enough of this beautiful face. Happy Mother's day everyone!

Halloween: Alice

So I finally decided Payton was going to be Alice this year. There were several runner ups though. I started out with a Simplicity pattern and we didn't get a long... at all. So I went through my patterns again and went with the pattern I used for Payton's Easter dress and made some modifications. I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I added a secondary skirt underneath, the apron is sewn into the waistband and the pocket.

I did a reverse applique on the pocket, first time. So easy!

We had a little outdoor tea party with homemade pumpkin bread. Yum.

I'm really hoping it fits next time we go to Disneyland... bonus!

Happy Halloween...

Happy Mommies Day!!

Today was a nice relaxing day with my munchkin. Yesterday the flowers she ordered me came and they were so beautiful :) I posted a little while back about mommy and me photos and today I wanted to try out the timer on my camera. It works, however I didn't get any really good shots of the two of us with it. I'll have to stick with the old fashion holding the camera out in front of us. Anyhoo, here's our 2011 Mother's day photos (I'm posting quite a few, consider yourself warned):

My self portrait skills are improving if I do say so myself :) Especially some of the ones from high school. (Some of you know what I'm talking about)

I just can't get over her scrunchy nose. 

She LOVES dress up!! This is only part of it.

Have to make her feet feel pretty too!

Happy mommies day to every lady out there!

Payton's Postponed Easter

On Easter we went to church and had lunch with friends as planned, but Payton ended up getting her first fever and cut our activities short. We're blessed we've come this far with out one and she got through it pretty quickly too. So because of that, obviously there are no Easter photos, especially of her dress I made. So we made up for it today. We spent the afternoon at the park enjoying the sunshine. But first, the outfit:

I used a Heidi and Finn pattern for the dress, it's one of my favorite pattern shops! The bloomers was from another little pattern from my stash and why the heart on the booty? Why not, it's cute. And I just winged the hair bow and glued to a clippy :) 

I had NO idea how much a $2 thing of bubbles could entertain Payton. She loved trying to blow bubbles. And just thought putting the wand in and out of the bottle was amazing.

Yes this is her WALKING towards me. It was only a few steps but I'll still take it. She even took two steps, turned and took a couple more! Woo hoo. We're getting technical now :)

Happy (really late) Easter everyone!!

St Patty's Day '11

Happy St Patty's Day everyone. Of course my mom made me a festive little outfit, and of course we had to take pictures TODAY. I was not feeling having my photos done today, but mom never listens to me. She thinks even my fussy pics are cute... ugh! Anyways here are some decent ones AKA I put on a happy face so she would leave me be. To give mom some credit, she did try and bribe me with some M&M's. That helped a little bit :)

Before she busted out the M&M's

Here you can see most of my outfit... I LOVE my shoes... the little gem sparkle thing on the toe is fab! Mommy sewed the couple shamrocks on my shirt, you can't see the stem but it's there. She got the idea from one of her little site things. 

Isn't my hair bow fun? I guess it was supposed to be a bow tie for boys, but why do boys wear bows? Aren't they just for girls? Anyways, I loved it too. 

Okay, time for me to go now.  Love, Payton

P's Holiday Outfit

I wanted to show everyone Payton's 'secret' holiday outfit. :) I only told two people, and that's a big deal for me, I'm not good at keeping secrets. Anyhoo, I used a tutorial for both the shirt and skirt and improvised on the hair clip. Payton was not the cooperative model when I tried to get photos, but oh well.

I did get a few of these mixed with her grumpy face... It's so pitiful but so cute too. She has become her own, stubborn little person.

But after I pulled out some mini chocolate chips, she decided to cooperate a little.

I love the circle skirt, it was very easy to make and Payton liked it too.

The only way I could get her to stand was by putting chocolate chips on the table :)

And yes, I hand-stitched all of those sequins on. Why did I do that on a shirt for a 1 year old? I have no idea. It's what I do I suppose.

Her hair clippy. It has black glittery tulle in it but not showing up :( Anyways, I love how her outfit turned out, yes it's very preppy, but preppy is fun :)

Merry Christmas from Payton...

Hi, it's me, Payton; I wanted to tell everyone about my Christmas. It was a great day! When I first woke up I saw this:

How fun!!! Mom made chocolate chip pancakes (some were a little toasty, but I won't tell her :) and then I got to open my stocking and presents from mommy...

Lots of fun jewelry, books and puzzles...

I LOVE books!!!!!!!!

I got to video chat with my dad, nana, papa and the rest of my Indiana family and open their gifts. Then more play time and nap time...

Me playing with my new hair salon that Santa brought me. But, I heard mommy say on the phone it took her two nights to build and that I needed to thank Auntie Jessica and Uncle Ryan... Do Auntie Jessica and Uncle Ryan live next to Santa and they'll pass the message along? And why is mommy building things for Santa, isn't that what the elves are for? I've heard about mommy's building skills, well, lack there of so I'm a bit nervous playing on it... After my nap, Santa came AGAIN! (luckily mom didn't have to build anything else :)

Now I'm really confused because mom kept telling me to thank Gram and Grandpa for these gifts that Santa left. Are there two Santas and there was a miscommunication when they divided the nice list and I got put on both? I'm okay with that :) 

I love my new Minnie Mouse chair! It's just my size. I got to video chat with Gram and Grandpa too and they got to see me in my chair and open their gifts too. I'm still working on getting out of the chair gracefully... Thank you to everyone who helped make my Christmas special. I love you all!

BYE!!!!