the Wood family

6 Weeks

2012-02-07T16:24:00.002-07:00

Kate turned 6 weeks yesterday! She is getting so big, so fast.

I can't take pictures of Kate without Payton wanted to be in them... holding her. These 2 have a special connection. Kate adores Payton.

I just wanted to throw in a couple pictures of Payton. She's a bathing beauty!

Just Pictures

2012-02-01T21:58:00.003-07:00

1 Month Check-Up

2012-01-28T00:31:00.002-07:00

Kate had her 1 month check up on her 1 month birthday! She is growing like a weed.

Kate weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and measured 21 inches long.

Payton looks like a scrounge muffin, but that's okay. She sure loves her baby sister.

Due Date

2012-01-25T13:26:00.003-07:00

Today is Kate's due date. I still can't believe that she is here, and has been for almost a whole month already. She is such a sweet little baby, and we sure love her.

When she was in the NICU the nurses called her a little bird because she would open her mouth all the time like a baby bird ready for food. The top picture is a perfect example.

She still fits into her newborn clothes, but this outfit from Gymboree is getting a little short in the legs.

4 Weeks

2012-01-22T13:48:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow Kate will be 4 weeks, and on Thursday she will officially be 1 month old! Here are some more pictures of our cute girl. The outfit she is wearing, came from my visiting teacher. Kate is still in newborn size. I can tell she is growing, but it will be interesting to see at her check-up, how much she has grown.

Kate loved her hospital binky, but every time she would quit sucking on it, it would fall out of her mouth and she would get really mad. We tried these different ones, and she likes them a lot better because it stays in her mouth!

Newborn Pictures

2012-01-17T14:08:00.005-07:00

I have been planning on taking some "newborn" pictures of Kate, and finally got around to attempting some. I don't want to keep putting it off until she gets too big, but it's hard to take any without Payton getting in the way. Yesterday, I decided to try taking pictures and see how they turned out, while Payton was in the bath. Payton is way too smart, and figured out what I was doing and so she didn't stay in very long. I am going to try again another day, hopefully, and get some more. I think they turned out pretty cute for a spure of the moment photo shoot with a 3 year old assistant.

Kate is 3 weeks old! She is growing so fast. I think she is going to be really smart, like her big sister. She can already support her own neck quite a bit. This morning I was sitting at the computer while I was trying to burp her, and she kept turning her head to look at the computer. When I would try to turn it back, I couldn't get her to budge (and that was even with a fair amount of pressure). When I would finally turn her straight, she would just turn her head back to the computer screen again.
Kate is a really easy baby. It has been really nice because Payton was so difficult from day 1!

If you can't tell that Payton loves her baby sister... SHE DOES!

After this picture, when Payton kissed Kate on the cheek, she said, "eww... she smells like barf. I don't want to hold her anymore." It was pretty funny because Kate did smell a little like spit up, but that hasn't kept Payton from wanted to hold her. She must not have cared much though, because she didn't quit holding her until Kate started to get really fussy.

Crib Quilt

2012-01-16T13:56:00.002-07:00

A few months ago, I decided to make a new crib quilt for Kate. It was a pretty fast project and I finally finished the binding just before Christmas. I am just now getting around to posting pictures of it. I am going to make Payton one too, with the same fabric, but stripes instead of squares.

2 Weeks

2012-01-11T13:37:00.003-07:00

Kate is 2 weeks and 2 days old! She is doing really well. I had to take her in to the pediatrician's office yesterday for a "follow-up" visit after leaving the NICU. She measured 19 and 1/4" and they weighed her at 6.1 pounds. They weighed her with her clothes on, so she was probably a tiny bit less than that, but she is growing!

I have come to realize that I am probably not going to get many pictures of Kate that don't include Payton, at least for a while. The second I take the camera out, Payton is there.
Don't ask why Payton is wearing a tank top and shorts in January. She is CRAZY! Even Kate thinks her big sister is crazy, just look at her expression. It's like she's says, "oh no, not again..."

Kate likes her binky. Payton never really did, so it's kind of nice.
I laid Kate on her back and she rolled herself over like this... then she did it again when I tried to put her back on her back.

I was taking a picture of Kate's feet, and Payton wanted in on it too, so I laid them together and took a couple quick pictures. Kate was squirming and Payton said it was tickling her.

Going Home

2012-01-05T11:18:00.003-07:00

Our baby girl came home Wednesday, 01/04/12, at exactly 37 weeks. We were so excited to be able to bring her home!

The top picture is Kate at 1 week.

When we got to the hospital on Tuesday, Kate's oxygen was gone. It was a big surprise to us because we were planning on having to take her home with the oxygen. I think she just really wanted to get better and come home, and worked extra hard.

When I called at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday to check on her, the doctors had already been by and signed her discharge papers. We had a couple of errands to run before we could pick her up, but as soon as we were ready, we headed over to the hospital.

Here she is in her cute "going home" outfit. It's a newborn size and a little big on her, but still really CUTE!

I tried to get her some pink binky's, but Target was out of the right size, so we'll have to get her some later.

All strapped up and ready to go!

The next 2 pictures are from today.

Her headbands are still too big, but I wanted to try it out anyway. Payton helped me pick out Kate's outfit for the day.

1 Week

2012-01-02T12:04:00.006-07:00

Kate is 1 week old today! I have to say that this has been one of the longest weeks of my life. She is doing great and is scheduled to be discharged Wednesday! We can't wait for her to come home with us. We love visiting her, but it's really starting to take a toll on all of us, especially Payton.

Can you tell that her big sister loves her? She keeps talking about being the "baby sitter". Payton is so excited for her baby sister to be here, and come home with us.
2 days old.

3 days old.

4 days old, and without her IV!

5 days old. We picked out this cute little outfit at Gymboree for her to wear.

It's size is "up to 5 lbs" and it's almost too small!

6 days old.

Kate Lillian Wood

2011-12-31T19:10:00.004-07:00

Around 6:20 p.m. on Christmas night, my water broke, 4 weeks and 3 days early. We were not ready for our baby girl to come, but that didn't matter to her. We hadn't even packed a hospital bag yet. I was planning on finishing up with Christmas and then starting to get everything ready for this baby to come, the next day.

So, we gathered up what we could think of that we would need and then headed over to the hospital. Luckily we live close to the hospital, so it wasn't a big deal if we forgot something at home. Even though my water broke, I wasn't having contractions yet.

I tested positive for Group B Strep and had to have antibiotics before they could start the pitocin, so David took Payton home for a while to eat something and relax. They came back a while later, and Payton watched movies on her DVD player while we waited. When I finally dilated to about a 6, I told the nurse that last time (with Payton) I went from a 6 to ready in about 30 minutes... which is exactly what happened again. Kate Lillian Wood was born at 6:28 a.m. on December 26th, 2011, weighing 5 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 in. long.
Because she was so early, and had a little trouble breathing on her own, they sent her straight to the NICU. We live at a really high elevation, which makes it harder to breathe even for me. They put her on a CPAP after a day and kept her on it for about a day, and then transitioned her to high flow oxygen.

I was able to leave Tuesday afternoon and go home, but Kate had to stay in the NICU. While I was waiting to be discharged, Payton decided she needed to wash her hair in the sink. It was hilarious, and luckily David had packed her a change of clothes because she was soaked!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T10:57:00.008-07:00

Christmas was kind of weird this year. We didn't get home from Utah until 10 days before Christmas day. David and I had already gotten our "main" present and so we just did stockings for each other. We put up the little tree, with one week to go, and let Payton do a little decorating.... and redecorating. I didn't want to get out a ton of ornaments, and so she only got the purple and green balls.

On Christmas eve, we hung out together and watched some movies. It's kind of a tradition in our little family to watch Christmas Vacation. After it was over, we checked on the NORAD tracker to see where Santa was, put out some treats (Payton wanted to leave 2 Oreos and an orange), then went to bed.

When she woke up, Payt had forgotten that it was Christmas. As soon as we reminded her, she wanted to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought.

She was so excited that she didn't even notice the art easel leaning against the chair. It was one thing that she had been asking for, "on her Christmas list".

When we pointed it out to her, she got so EXCITED. It was really funny because she kept saying, "this is what I wanted" and then hugging everything. I tried to load a video of her looking at all her stocking stuff, but it wouldn't work.

I didn't feel up to taking a ton of pictures while she opened all her wrapped gifts. She got some fun stuff, and I had every intention of taking a picture after everything was unwrapped, but it didn't happen.

WalMart was selling all the Harry Potter movies for just under $4 each, temporarily, and so we decided to get them all. I wrapped them all up for her to unwrap, and it was really funny because after about 3, she was like... "another Harry Potter" (in a bored tone).

I took a few pictures of her while she was drawing on her new easel. One side is dry erase and the other is a chalk board.

After all the presents, we had breakfast/lunch and then hung out until we decided to take a nap. While we were napping, we were cooking a little turkey breast, to have with potatoes and gravy and stuffing. I woke up earlier than David and Payton, so I went downstairs to start peeling the potatoes. On my way downstairs, my water broke! Needless to say, we spent the rest of Christmas at the hospital because our baby girl had decided to come 4 and a half weeks early!!!

Christmas Photo Shoot

2011-12-17T21:54:00.006-07:00

I tried to take some "Christmas" pictures of Payton in her dress, this year. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but here is what we got...

P.S. She has a little black sweater that she wears with the dress, but she refused to wear it for the pictures, and since this was our second attempt (I forgot to put a memory card in the camera the first time) I took what I could get.

Traverse City, Michigan

2011-11-06T11:51:00.007-07:00

While in MI, I also interviewed in Traverse City at Munson Medical Center.
This is the view from the 7th Floor of the Cardiac Tower. The nurses told me this is the best place to watch the fireworks on the bay and the Blue Angels that come every other year.

This is Munson. It is about a 400 bed hospital and is in the Top 15 Hospitals. It is rated #2 in the nation for cardiac hospitals. It is recognized for orthopedics and other specialities. The campus is quite large and has numerous medical buildings for specialists since it serves most of Northern MI. It also only has a FM Residency.

This was just a cool walk way behind the hospital.

This is the Family Medicine Clinic.

This is old downtown just off the water.

This is a typical neighborhood.

This is just off main street overlooking the water.

I walked on the beach and put my hand in the water. It was much warmer than most mountain lakes in Summer and it was November.

Highway out of Traverse City

This is a rare field as there are tons of trees as they literally have to clear cut to have an open area.

A golf course for McKay. It has some of the nations top golf courses and some little ski resorts.

A random lake on my way back to Detroit. Yes, I did drive the 4 hours both ways! Although it is a resort town it pretty much has everything including a big mall and Sams Club. And yes mom, they do have Red Lobster just for you.

Southfield, Michigan

2011-11-05T23:05:00.003-06:00

I just got back from Michigan again.

On my way out there, there was a blizzard and our plane we were leaving on hit the gate and damaged the motor and gate. Here is a post wreck picture.

Here is the pilot hanging out the window and yelling at the ground crew (although she was the one that kept going when they signaled her to stop).
This is the building adjacent to the hospital where one of the Family Medicine clinics is located.

This is Providence Hospital. It was quite large and impressive.

This is a freeway in Detroit.

This is the Chrysler building.

This is just a freeway outside of Detroit

This is the other Southfield Hospital in Novi. The hospital is also huge and is only a couple years old.

More of Novi

Bay City, Michigan

2011-11-05T22:13:00.005-06:00

This is David, and I recently interviewed at Bay City, MI

This is a picture to show what a typical street near the hospital looks like.

These are some cool old homes in the area.
This is the Family Medicine Clinic

This is to show a farm field just outside of town.

This is the hospital. It is very large hospital and was recently remodeled on the inside and has a 5 room cath lab and an ER that sees close to 50,000 patients a year.

This is City Hall. Much of the city has huge, classic looking buildings.

This is downtown a few blocks from the water. It has tons of little old time Mom and Pop shops.

This is a walkway on the Saginaw River.

This is the highway to the airport.

This is the local airport which is very small. Bay City is actually 1.5-2 hours to Detroit.

Corpus Christi, Texas

2011-11-05T21:47:00.006-06:00

I also recently went to Corpus Christi and had a great time.

This is the Heart Hospital

This is view showing how the Heart Hospital and Bay Hospital connect.

This is the front area of the hospital

Just South of the Hospital 10 minutes is Padre Island. These are town homes on the canals carved in from the Bay. You can get town homes like this for 190,000.

This is a view of the Gulf of Mexico on Padre Island. Notice how cars just drive out. You pay something like $15 a year and you can park on any beach.

This is what the main street in downtown Corpus Christi looks like. These are where the huge expensive homes are located.

This is a view of the city from one of the numerous parks.

This is just off the main drag.

This is a remake of one of Columbus' ships. This also shows the yacht club.

This is an actual aircraft museum across from the huge concert/stadium.

This is the drive from Corpus Christi to San Antonio to show how green it was when I was there.

This is coming into San Antonio.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T16:55:00.006-06:00

Payton was lucky enough to go Trick-or-Treating twice this year, and it was actually her first "official" time going. The first round was at the ward Trunk or Treat on Friday.

She was too busy trying to see what was going on to look at the camera.

They had chili before the Trunk or Treat, but it was outside, and we didn't feel like eating any. Instead, we hung out inside for a little bit, before the candy started.

Payton's 2nd round of Trick-or-Treating was on Halloween. David had an interview in Michigan that day, but flew into the Colorado Springs airport just after 7 p.m.

Here we are waiting in the "waiting area", to pick David up and then go get Payton some candy.

The neighborhood we went to first was a miss, but then we headed to a townhouse complex where David used to go home teaching. There were tons of people giving out candy in the townhouses.

Payton ended up with 3.2 pounds of candy. A lot for such a small girl, but she is good about sharing, and we threw out a bunch of stale stuff.

One thing that Payton kept saying was... "everyone keeps saying they want to eat me!" Who wouldn't want to eat such a cute little hamburger?

Family Pictures 2011

2011-10-24T16:06:00.005-06:00

We went out and took some family pictures yesterday. I thought it would be fun to take some with the fall colors, and get some shots of our family of 3 before it grows to 4 in a few months. When we went out, it wasn't the "ideal" time for the sun, but when you have Payton (like I said before) you go when you can and just deal with rest.

This last picture is Payton scratching me because she didn't want to get in the car.

I think that they turned out pretty good, for "self portraits". I would have liked to have gotten more, but (as you can see from the above picture) Payton was DONE!

Fall

2011-10-22T14:19:00.003-06:00

There are some really bright fall colors on the trees in our complex. Payton and I decided to go and take some pictures of the different leaves, to waste some time before we had to leave to pick David up from the airport. Here are a few pictures of the leaves, and of Payton too.

So I'm sure you can tell... she dressed herself again today. She had on another outfit, that I helped her pick out earlier today. She was watching pictures on the screen saver of the computer and saw herself wearing her "surfing shirt" and HAD to change. I went downstairs and this is the outfit that she came up with, all on her own.
P.S. Her surfing shirt is under her new black sweater... and she informed me while we were in the car that she "didn't need socks" and so she didn't bother to put any on today. WHATEVER!

While we were outside, she saw the playground, and decided that she needed to play. Of course, she took her boots off while we were there (because they kept getting rocks in them).

Car Seat Cover

2011-10-16T14:30:00.002-06:00

I wanted to make one of those cute car seat blanket/covers that everyone seems to have. It took me a while to finish this project, not because it was hard to make, but because it was hard to find all the matching components.

I decided to just use clip on flowers, so that I could change them whenever I wanted.

Halloween Hamburger

2011-10-13T13:07:00.008-06:00

Payton started out the day with a grouchy morning. I really wanted to take some pictures of her today, and decided that I better do it now or never (probably). The lighting is a little bright, but you take what you can I guess. She wasn't in the mood to be super cute today, but I think I got some that will work.

Here they are...

I think this last one when she is ringing the door bell is my favorite.

Halloween Preview

2011-10-12T20:04:00.003-06:00

This year for Halloween, Payton is going to be...

A Hamburger!

Check back for pictures of her dressed up in her costume, soon.

The Last

2011-10-12T14:56:00.005-06:00

These are the last of my "Utah" pictures.

Steiner had a lacrosse game in Lindon, on my dad's birthday. My mom, Payton and I all spent Friday night at Grandpa Torgersen's house, and my dad and Steiner drove down on Saturday. Before heading to the game, Payton and Papa spent some time checking for Waldo.Here we all are at the game... Papa, Regular Grandma, Payton, Grandpa Grape, and Tanner.
It was pretty hot at the game, and I even got sunburned. Luckily my mom brought 2 umbrellas, that helped with the heat.

The rest of the pictures were taken by Payton. She is on her way to becoming a photographer. I think we're going to get her a camera for Christmas

(one of those Fisher Price ones, designed for kids).

More Randomness

2011-10-10T12:59:00.006-06:00

These are more pictures of the random things that Payton did while we were in Utah.

She was obsessed with climbing on the "blue stairs" (aka pool ladder) and so we moved it onto the grass, in case she fell off, it wouldn't be such a hard landing. Notice the tiny brown stool out there too. She also has an obsession with this little stool. Every time she is at my parent's house she has to use it, mostly for a chair.She decided to take a walk in my dad's shoes. You can really see them, but she was outside wearing nothing but her underwear and Papa's shoes. It was pretty funny.
She probably picked at least a dozen pears off the tree in the backyard. She ate about half of them too.

Here she is modeling her "Belle" gloves. Beauty and the Beast is probably Payton's favorite Disney movie (besides Cars) and she has a Belle dress (I'll have to post pictures another day of the whole outfit), and so all she needed were the elbow length gloves to go with the dress. We found her some gloves at a dress store for like $4, and they're perfect!

My mom and I left my dad in charge of Payton while we ran to Target one day. I guess they got creative with the chalk while we were gone.

My mom has a costume box with a few different things in it, one of which is this pink dress. We got it out so Payton could wear it.

These are the kind of pictures you get, when you ask Payton to "do something cute." Apparently cute means a completely different thing to her than it does to me.

Belly Picture

2011-10-08T14:55:00.005-06:00

So, I am not big on taking "belly pictures" throughout my pregnancy. I actually only have one official picture from my pregnancy with Payton. I was about 22 weeks along. I decided that I would take another one this time around, at about the same number of weeks, in the same outfit. It just so happened that both times I was at my parent's house, and so I took the picture in the same spot too. Corny, I know.

The top picture is Baby Kate and the bottom picture is Baby Payton.

Pretty close, I think.

I'm almost 25 weeks now, so this picture is a little old.

Projects

2011-10-07T14:06:00.002-06:00

So here are a few pictures of some projects I did while I was in Utah. Nothing too exciting, but I still thought I would post some pictures.

I wanted to make some of these curly hair bows. The last time I tried, it didn't turn out very well, but these ones are pretty cute. If only Payton would wear them in her hair... Oh well, maybe when Baby Kate is wearing hair bows and headbands, Payton will want to wear them too.
I've been interesting in getting a pasta roller, but I wanted to try it out first to see if I really wanted one. My mom has an attachment for her Kitchen aid mixer, and so I made some fettuccine noodles one afternoon. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

I found this cute pull-over bib at a fabric store. It was hemstitched around the edge so that it could be crocheted. My mom had this fun thread, that I used to go around the edges of the bib. I was also crocheting around a couple receiving blankets that my mom had, but I left them there for something to do when we're back in a few weeks.

Lacrosse Season 2

2011-10-06T09:50:00.003-06:00

Steiner is playing lacrosse again this year, and we got to watch 2 games this visit! These pictures are from the very first game of the season. Steiner (and his team) played really hard and showed a lot of improvement from last year. They won the game 12-10!

This time it was only Payton, my mom, and me that watched the game. Payton was a really good cheerleader. She even cheered loud enough that Steiner could hear her, and he waved at her.Steiner was #30 for this game. He plays defense.

Payt was getting really creative with the chair bag. She put it on her head and said, "this is my Marge hair". The only problem was that it was yellow instead of blue.

I'm sure a lot of you get the joke.

Oh course, she took her shoes off right after we sat down. At least this time it was warm.

I took a picture of myself to prove I was there.

Good Job Stein! Keep up the hard work.

Busy Payton

2011-10-05T12:57:00.003-06:00

After we left Casper, we headed to Utah. Most of the time we just hung out. I have more pictures of our time there, but these are just a sample of how Payton spent her time.

She colored chalk on the sidewalk.
Ran around in the backyard (A LOT).

Tormented Pepper (A LOT).

Played "dress" up. This was a dress my mom bought her, that she wore just about everyday while we were there.

Took a bubble bath.

And still more to come....

Casper, Wyoming

2011-10-04T10:30:00.006-06:00

During the month of September, David spent his time in Casper, Wyoming, on another audition rotation for residency. It was too expensive for us to stay with him, so he got to be in Wyoming alone, while Payton and I spent time in Utah with Regular Grandma, Papa, Steiner, and Pepper.

We spent a week at home, and then headed up to Casper for the weekend, to see David on our way to Utah. I don't know what it is about the long car rides, but every time we are on one, Payton's shirt eventually comes off. She is CRAZY!

The drive was super exciting, if you can't tell by this picture of the scenery.
Payton was really excited to see her dad and spend time with him for a few days.

David rented out a room in this house from a 3rd year resident. The guy had 2 big dogs, a cat, and lots of dead/stuffed animals hanging on the walls. Needless to say... it was interesting.

David showed us around the town on Saturday. Whenever we are in the Jeep, Payton thinks it's fun to play with this flag because we usually have to windows rolled down.

I booked us a room at a motel with a pool, so that Mermaid Payton could swim.

I didn't get very many pictures while we were in Casper, and I forgot to leave the little camera with David. Payton and I got there on a Friday and left for Utah on Sunday. We didn't get a chance to see the whole town, but David checked everything out for us. He really liked the program in Casper, and it's one of his top choices.

Extreme Makeover

2011-10-03T11:33:00.004-06:00

Last night on ABC, Extreme Makeover Home Edition was extra special. It wasn't because of the family that was featured, but because my dad had a big hand in the building of this house! The company he works for, Sunroc, was one of the main material suppliers for the project. Holmes Homes, the company who built the house, is one of my dad's biggest customers.

While we were in Utah, Payton and I drove by the house and took a couple of pictures.

The rest of the pictures I snagged off of the Sunroc website because they had my dad in them...

Hair Bows

2011-09-03T18:00:00.003-06:00

Payton and I decided to make some hair bows today. She wanted us to model them when we were finished.

I decided now that we are going to have 2 little girls, I should probably make 2 bows instead of one. That way they can each wear one, or one can wear both with piggy tails.

Payton was dieing for me to make some with the spiderweb ribbon, so I made her some for Halloween.

It's a ...

2011-08-31T18:57:00.002-06:00

GIRL!

Yes, that's right... We're expecting baby #2 on January 25th! Today was the ultrasound to find out the gender of our little baby. We were guessing that the baby was going to be a girl, but we would have been happy either way. We found out that our baby is another girl, and she's perfectly healthy. We're going to name her Kate Lillian.

She was all scrunched up and so they couldn't get very good profile pictures, but here are the ones the gave us to take home.

Viva Las Vegas

2011-08-29T13:11:00.007-06:00

During the month of August, we temporarily lived in Las Vegas! David was doing his first (of three) audition rotations for residency with a program down there.

There is a show on the History Channel called Pawn Stars. It's about the daily business of a local pawn shop in Las Vegas. We are big fans of the show, and so we decided to go check out the pawn shop for ourselves. The line wasn't very long to go inside. We didn't stay long because it wasn't too exciting, and of course none of the "stars" of the show were there.

We were really lucky, and David's parents let us use their time share points to stay in a condo while we were there... and Payton's favorite part was the pool. She dressed herself in a swimming suit pretty much every day, whether we were going swimming or not.

The second week we were there, David's parents came down to visit.

They decided that rather than mail Payton a birthday present, they would just wait an extra month and give them to her in person. Of course she isn't wearing anything but a Pull-Up and her new Princess shirt from the Disney store.

I'm sure you all know what a big Boise State fan Payton is, and so for part of her birthday present, Grandma and Grandpa Wood got her something to wear.

We ended up going swimming almost every single day, and some days even more than once!

About 2 miles or so down the street from where we were staying, and across the street from the Strip, was the busiest In-N-Out. We ate there more times than I really want to admit. The last time we went, we were stopped at the stoplight waiting to turn left and Payton saw the giant neon sign and started yelling, "Right there Dad, turn right there. It's right there. Go there!" It was pretty funny. She would get french fries and a chocolate shake.

I hadn't ever played a slot machine before and I just wanted that "once in my life" experience. One night while David's parent were still down, they watched Payton for us so David and I could go out for a few hours.

We each played $10 ($5 at a time). I didn't win anything, but David put his second $5 in a machine at New York New York, and won $10 on his first try, so he cashed out and ended up breaking even. After that, we went upstairs to the arcade and had a lot of fun playing some some claw games. David is actually pretty good and them and won Payton an Angry Bird and a purple ball. I think we'll stick to the arcade games in the future... They're a lot more fun!

Payton is into the weird "modeling" thing every time I try to take her picture. It turns out pretty funny most of the time.

Here she is ready to go swimming... again.

After David's parents went back home, we decided to go and walk around part of the Strip. We walked the majority of the Strip on 3 different occasions. This picture is in front of one of the huge water fountains inside the mall of Caesar's Palace.

The next trip we started at Planet Hollywood and ended up at the Coke and M.M. store. I think the Coke store was one of my very most favorite places we went.

On the 2nd level of the Coke store, they have a soda fountain. For $7, you can get The Tastes of the World. It is 16 cups of different sodas made by Coke in other countries. We decided that it would be fun to try them... and our Coke/Peach Fanta Icee!

All of the sodas on the top tray were pretty good, but the second tray was almost all NASTY! They even had one that tasted just like drinking mouthwash.

This is David's face after drinking one on tray #2.

After the Coke store we walked next door to the M.M. store. I'm pretty sure that they were pumping chocolate scent into the air throughout all 4 levels of this store. After drinking a ton of soda over at the Coke store, then going into the "chocolate" smelling air of the M.M. store, I thought I was going to be sick.

We really wanted to go see the Las Vegas temple, so one night we headed out there. It was a longer drive then we thought, but definitely worth it. This is one of the prettiest temples I have ever seen. The pictures don't even do it justice.

One of the cool parts about being there at night is that you can see all the lights of Las Vegas and the whole Strip from the temple grounds. My camera didn't take a very good picture, but it was a really cool view.

Payton kept trying to convince us to take her in. We told her some other day, when she's wearing church clothes (and not shorts) she can go inside. She really loves seeing the different temples. I think she was the most excited one to be there of all of us.

I have more to write about, so check out Part 2 below!

Viva Las Vegas Part 2

2011-08-29T11:58:00.007-06:00

More swimming pictures... The resort had a splash pad for the kids to play at. Payton played there a little bit, but she mostly hung out in the pool.

She had this strange obsession with sticking her bum in the different fountain at the splash pad.
They had these cool little buckets that would fill up with water and then randomly dump. Payton wasn't too fond of this part. I think it was too much water for her little body to handle.

She thought that she was such a big girl swimming with just her floaty. By the time we left, she would just swim around in her floaty all by herself. She even taught herself how to dive for stuff on the steps... as long as she kept her nose plugged. She would even open her eyes and look around underwater.

The last weekend before we had to go home, we went down to check out the night scene on the Strip. We started with the Mirage Volcano.

Payton couldn't decide if she thought it was cool or scary.

After that finished we walked down the street to Treasure Island to watch the pirate show. It was interesting... to say the least. They have changed it, so that instead of having a big fight between the 2 ships, it's now more like a Burlesque show. We didn't stay for the whole thing, but there were so many people watching, we couldn't really go anywhere.

Payton kept covering her eyes because the fireworks they used were so bright... and loud.

After the pirate show, we walked all the way back down to see the Bellagio Fountains. That was Payton's very most favorite part. Next time, I think we'll just go watch the fountains for a while.

After that, it was our last week in Las Vegas, so we mostly just hung out at the condo and swam in the pool after David got home from work/school.

P.S. One really exciting piece of news we got while we were down there was that David passed his BOARDS! He is now officially a 4th year. 8 months to go before he is officially Dr. Wood!

Photo Shoot

2011-07-27T20:25:00.003-06:00

I am really bad about taking Payton to get her picture taken for her birthday. The other night it was pretty cool outside and the sun hadn't gone down yet, so I dressed her up and did her hair, and made her go take pictures. Well, I shouldn't say "made" her, because she actually likes posing for pictures.

This is her Easter dress. I didn't get around to taking any pictures of her in it at Easter, so I thought that I would kill 2 birds with one stone by taking her "3 year birthday" pictures in her Easter dress.

Payton Turns 3

2011-07-26T17:23:00.003-06:00

Payton turned 3 on July 11th!

Here are some pictures to show how she spent her birthday.

First she took a bath. Most of the time she showers, but today she wanted a relaxing bath. (p.s. She was just hanging out like this. I didn't pose her or put the towel on her.)

After her bath, she watched her shows (cartoons on PBS).
Later in the afternoon, we all went to see Rio at the cheap movie theater. On our way home, we stopped by 7-11 to get our free Slurpee. 7-11 was giving away free Slurpee's because the date was 7/11.

After we got home, Payton and I made butterfly cookies. Instead of making/buying a cake (since we had Costco cupcakes for her early birthday) I decided to make sugar cookies. At Easter time, I bought the butterfly shaped cookie cutter and have been telling Payton that we can make cookies ever since.

Of course she wanted pink frosting.

A few days before her actual birthday, I bought Payton a potty. She had a couple of potty seats that go on the big toilet, but she would only go pee. As soon as she took the potty out of the box, she was POTTY TRAINED!

I bought the really cheap one and let her decorate it with stickers, instead of paying twice the price for one with Princesses on it.

4th of July

2011-07-25T11:51:00.004-06:00

My mom and dad and Steiner came down to visit at Grandpa Great's for the 4th of July.

Payton and Regular Grandma were watching Scooby Doo on her Ipad.

We all went out to the cemetery to see the grave marker. Payton just wanted to run around the whole time, but it was really hot so we didn't stay long.Since Payton's birthday was only a week away, and my family came down to visit, we decided to have a little mini birthday celebration for Payton. We got Little Cesar's pizza and cupcakes from Costco!

Payton thought it would be really funny to put her presents on Papa.

The present that she was the most excited about was this pack of lip glosses. I wish that I had the video camera going because she was so funny when she opened this one.

David and I got her a little princess beauty set. It has a pretend hair straightener, curling iron, a blow dryer that blows air, a brush, and some other pretend stuff.

My dad asked her to do his hair...

So she did.

Tanner's Wedding

2011-07-24T21:48:00.003-06:00

My younger brother, Tanner, got married on June 25th, to Sarah Johnson.

The day started out with a luncheon at the church, and then the wedding was later in the afternoon/evening at the Victorian in Layton.
As you can see, Payton had a really LONG day. She was supposed to be a flower girl with her super cute red dress, but she fell asleep on the way to the wedding from my parent's house.

Payton slept through the wedding ceremony and then woke up as soon as it was over. She had lost Favorite Baby before we left for the wedding, and couldn't be consoled without her. Finally David and Payton had to go home to my parent's house to get her to calm down. After searching for 2 hours, we finally found Favorite Baby and were able to go back to the end of the reception.

I don't have hardly any pictures from the whole day because it was so stressful.

50th Anniversary Party

2011-07-21T20:22:00.004-06:00

David's parent's 50th Anniversary is this next month. While we were in Utah, we all decided to have a little celebration for them. David's brother, Danny, and his family were also in Utah (from Maine) and their sister Pam lives in Layton. The only part of the family wasn't able to make it, was David's sister Cindy and her family.

As a surprise gift for David's parents, I made them a rag quilt. David and I picked out fabric to represent each member of the family, and then I embroidered every one's name on one square.

Payton wanted to model the quilt.

We all met up at the Gateway to have dinner at Biaggi's. Payton was taking "pictures" of everything before we went inside to eat.

Here we all are...

After dinner, we all rode the Trax up to Temple Square to take some family pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa Wood with all the Grandkids

David, Pam, Danny

Sylvia and Emer

Back Row: Sharice, Steve, Tyler, Pam, Dave, Payton, Matt, Kailey, David, Me, Danny

Front Row: Emma, Sylvia, Emer, Lynda, Evan, Micala, Katie

Missing from the pictures: Cindy, Dustin, Megan, Trevor, Devon

Hair Cut

2011-07-20T18:47:00.005-06:00

Payton had her first real (and very needed) haircut. She had what I like to call a skunk mullet. Remember when she got the comb stuck in her hair and I had to cut it out... and then she decided to give herself another haircut on the other side, completely scalping herself. She ended up having long hair down the middle from the top all the way to the back.

Check out the before...

Getting ready...
Now that's better.

Pretty cute!

Sprinklers

2011-07-15T10:45:00.003-06:00

One day, while Grandpa was watering a dry patch in the lawn, Payton decided she wanted to run through the sprinkler. It was pretty funny to watch her because she wanted to be in the water, but then it was too cold and she couldn't stay in very long.

I kept trying to get her to touch the sprinkler. She finally did it once when I wasn't ready with the camera.

She was leaping like a frog up the hill.

Then she decided to go up on the deck.

She decided that she wanted her towel on.

Then she changed her mind again, and wanted to check for spiders instead.

It took me the whole time to get her to look at me and smile so that I could get a really cute picture. She was just too busy to look at me. I think it was worth the wait though because this turned out to be a pretty cute picture.

Just Stuff

2011-07-12T14:49:00.003-06:00

These are just a few random pictures.

Payton loved following Grandpa around the yard, almost every day. She really enjoyed having a yard to play in.

When she wasn't outside, we hung out in the basement. Payton was always busy doing one thing or another.

I think she was being a horse or something... whatever it was, it was pretty silly.

One Saturday, Grandpa took us for a little nature walk up at the BYU campus. There was a trail that followed a stream for about a half mile or so. Payton found a few duck friends along the way.

Memorial Day

2011-07-08T17:49:00.005-06:00

We headed back over to Provo again, Memorial Day weekend. David was scheduled to do his Pediatric rotation at a clinic for the month of June. On Memorial Day, my mom and dad came down and we all went to put flowers on Grandma's grave.

Payton and Papa were playing "Singing in the Rain" while we were getting ready to leave. It was rainy all weekend.
Best Buds... Payton and Grandpa Great

Look at all the flowers Grandma got...

Even Payton picked out some artificial ones to bring to Grandma. We didn't think that she was going to want to leave them, but she did. She even got them back after the week was over.

She thought she needed some flowers. She tried to "steal" stuff that other people had put on their family graves. Grandpa cut her a little bunch from each of the plants that we brought and that seemed to satisfy her.

The marker was finished a few weeks before we headed back home, so we got to go back out to the cemetery and see it in place.

Now that we're home, I have tons of pictures to post. My camera had 486 on it! Keep checking back because there's going to be lots to see...

Photo Booth

2011-06-21T14:00:00.001-06:00

Payton and Grandpa Great were having fun with photo booth on his fancy new computer. How do they look.... CRAZY!

~~~

2011-05-26T13:55:00.004-06:00

One of my new favorite quotes came from a Hallmark bag...

"Life is a Special Occasion."

Ready to Rumble

2011-05-22T17:04:00.002-06:00

Payton did this all on her very own.

We didn't even know she knew what boxing gloves and a punching bag were....

I told her to make a "tough" face.

Lacrosse

2011-05-19T15:19:00.004-06:00

Steiner has been playing lacrosse this year for the Syracuse High School Sophomore team. It's his, and the team's, first year ever. While we were in Utah last month, we finally got to go watch one of his games. Easter weekend, they had a game in Highland, so my mom, dad and Steiner all came down for the weekend. This was my first time ever watching a lacrosse game. David played his Freshman year in college, but I wasn't around then. I told him that I might not have liked to watch him play anyway, because the game is pretty brutal, and we were only watching the High School Sophomores!

Payton had fun watching the game. For some crazy reason she decided to take off her shoes and socks and jacket the minute she got there. I don't know what it is about this girl but she thinks that she can't watch without her shoes off (she did the same thing at the UofU/AF football game last fall).
Papa convinced her to snuggle in the blanket for a few minutes.

David being David... silly!

Watching the game.

Steiner is #20. Here are a few shots of him in action.

He even got nailed in the ankle with the ball, HARD, but kept on playing. I'm so proud of him for finding his "thing" and sticking with it. He's going to make a pretty good Lacrosse player by the time he's a Senior!

It was so cold and drizzly. After Regular Grandma (that's what Payton calls my mom) got out her umbrella, Payton was her buddy.

Here's proof I was there.

Her feet were so cold that Papa tried to put gloves on them. That lasted for a few seconds.

After the game, we convinced Payton to put her socks/shoes/jacket back on so that we could go to lunch. In case you were wondering, Lone Peak beat Syracuse, but they all played pretty hard, especially for being a brand new team.

Exer-Slide

2011-05-16T13:28:00.002-06:00

Payton is pretty creative. She's been obsessed with exercising lately, because she sees me walk on the treadmill almost every day. She created her very own "treadmill", using her slide. She's kind of hard to understand in the video because she's pretty worn out. By the time I made the video she'd been "exercising" for quite a while.

Steiner Benjamin Houston

2011-05-14T17:34:00.006-06:00

Happy 16th Birthday to my baby brother!

I can't believe he is already old enough to drive and date!

Here are a few pictures in tribute to you, Steiny!

Steiner is one of Payton's favorite people ever. When she was little, she would cry when ever he left the room, and get really excited when he would come back. They are special buds!

Build a Bear

2011-05-13T11:42:00.004-06:00

While we were in Utah the month of April, Aunt Pam and Katie wanted to take Payton to Build a Bear! She was a little overwhelmed at first because she'd never been there before and they had SO many different things to choose from. By the time she was all done "building" her new friend, she was a Build a Bear Pro!

After a lot of debate, Payton finally chose this cute little lamb, special for Easter.
When they were checking out all of the different sounds that you could put inside, Payton decided that she wanted to put a frog sound inside her lamb. No one, no matter how hard they tried could change her mind. She says, "she has a frog in her tummy!" (Like when people say they have a frog in their throat.)

She got to push the peddle to fill her lamb up with stuffing.

When the girl told her to put the heart next to her heart, she stuck it inside her shirt onto her skin. She knows where her heart is...

Then Payton got to give her lamb a bath.

And pick out a super cute pink sparkly outfit.

And register it with a name.

Payton and her new little lamb, Lamb Chop!

Thanks Aunt Pam and Katie! Payton sure had fun.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T21:25:00.002-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's in my life... especially my wonderful Mom!

Karen Torgersen, age 16

Style

2011-05-05T13:57:00.001-06:00

Payton has a style all her own!

I thought this picture might put a smile on every one's face.

Lucile Harvey Torgersen

2011-05-03T14:43:00.007-06:00

On Sunday afternoon, my dear sweet Grandma passed away. Grandma was one of the very most important and special people in my life. She was more like a second Mom, than a Grandma to me. I am so grateful that David, Payton and I were able to spend the last month with Grandma and Grandpa. We were able to let Grandma know how much we loved her, and to say goodbye.

I always knew that someday I would have a baby girl, and she would be named after this wonderful woman. Payton Lucile Wood is that very baby girl.

I just wanted to post some of my favorite pictures of my Grandma, in a small tribute to her.

Both David and my Mom have commented that Payton looks a little like Grandma Grape (that's what Payton calls her). This picture of my grandma as a little girl dressed in her princess dress, reminds me of Payton.

Grandma and Grandpa were married December 21, 1962. I have a small copy of this picture that I have always keep on a shelf in my room, and now it's in Payton's room.

Four generations.

My mom, Grandma Harvey (my Grandma's mom, her name was also Lucile) holding me (2 months old) and Grandma Torgersen.

Grandma and her very first grand baby... me!

Grandpa took this picture of Grandma and I wearing our matching outfits to Steiner's baptism.

This one is my absolute favorite picture.

My Grandma, holding her first great grand baby, Payton Lucile.

I have kept a framed copy of this picture in Payton's room ever since it was taken.

4 Generations.

Grandma, Me, Payton (18 months) and my Mom. This was the last picture we took of the 4 of us all together.

Forever Families

2011-05-01T16:28:00.002-06:00

This past weekend, I have gained a great appreciation for the knowledge I have that families can be together forever.

I am so grateful that my grandparents were sealed in the temple.

I am so grateful that my parents were sealed in the temple.

I am so grateful that David and I were sealed in the temple.

I truly have a testimony in forever families.

Cool

2011-04-16T17:11:00.002-06:00

Payton clipped these 2 eye glass cases on her shirt and in her hair last night. After she clipped them into her hair, she said...

"I look cool"

and then she laughed.

Helper

2011-04-11T14:49:00.002-06:00

David had a little helper the other day. While he had the carpet cleaner out, he cleaned the recliner too. Payton did a really good job helping her dad clean off the chair.

P.S. She wanted her hair straightened.

Donuts

2011-04-05T12:27:00.002-06:00

On Friday, David had to go up to Parker for a midterm at the school, so Payton and I went too. While David was at school, we ran a some errands and looked around the mall. Payton was being such a good girl that I decided to take her to Krispy Kreme for a treat. We don't have one near us, so it was a special treat! Of course she picked out one with sprinkles, and ate the whole thing.

Lucky Day

2011-03-17T12:23:00.004-06:00

Today is

Payton's

Lucky Day!

We finally heard back from the pediatrician's office about the breathing test Payton had last Thursday night, and they said...

SHE's OKAY TO GO OFF OF THE OXYGEN!

So, the oxygen company is going to come and pick up the machine.

When I asked her if she was excited for the guy to take the oxygen away, Payton acted sad and said, "no" she wasn't excited. She's had a love/hate relationship with the oxygen, but I think she'll be happy to have it gone.

"Grown Up"

2011-03-16T14:45:00.003-06:00

Payton thinks it's so fun to dress up in my clothes...

So, last night while she was at it again, she said,

"Look... I'm a grown up!"

It was so funny. I didn't even know she knew what a "grown up" was.

Hair Cut

2011-03-08T12:34:00.004-07:00

This morning, while Payton was in the shower, she got a comb REALLY tangled in her hair. After looking at it closely and trying to unwind it, I decided the only way that thing was coming out was to cut it out.

While I had the scissors out, I also trimmed the bottom of her hair to even it up a little. This was Payton's first "official" haircut ever!

before the comb was cut out...after the comb was cut out, but before the trim...

...after trim...
This is all the hair that I cut off.

RSV Update

2011-03-05T10:33:00.002-07:00

I thought it would probably be a good idea to do an update on how Payton is doing. She did really well sleeping and keeping her oxygen in for the first couple of days (these pictures are from Monday night).

We took her to the regular pediatrician on Wednesday and he said that she was doing pretty well. She has to stay on her oxygen, at the current level (1/4) until Monday. On Monday we are supposed to call the oxygen company and have them come give her an overnight pulse-ox test (like she had at the hospital) with her oxygen turned down half what it is now (1/8). If she passes the test, she will have to stay on that level for another week. Then again, we are supposed to have another pulse-ox test done with out the oxygen and if she passes then she's okay to go off it completely. If she doesn't pass then they will just turn it down again (1/16) for a week and then take her off it. The doctor said that sometimes they have to step the oxygen down slower (to 1/16) than usual because we are at such a high elevation.

Payton has been acting like she's feeling better, but she's not sleeping as well as she did. I think she was just so worn out the first couple of days, that all she wanted to do was sleep. Now that she is feeling better, she's more active. We've been having a hard time getting her to keep the tubes in her nose when she's sleeping. She wakes up and takes them out and then it's a fight to get them back in. When she doesn't keep the tubes in, it wakes her up. Hopefully she will be able to get off the oxygen sooner than later so that we don't have to fight with her about it anymore and she can breath better on her own again..

ER to RSV

2011-03-01T10:33:00.003-07:00

Payton has been sick of a couple of weeks. It started out as a stuffy/runny nose and started to get better, then she started coughing. Her cough got progressively worse, and then she wouldn't keep anything down. She threw everything up that she ate or drank, within 30 minutes. We decided that it was time to take her in to get checked. So, just before 10 p.m., Saturday night, we showed up at the Emergency Room. She was acting really sick at first, while we waited, but then she started to act back to normal and she wasn't even coughing. We were afraid that we over-reacted and should have waited until the next day and just take her to Urgent Care. Well, after about an hour or so, they called her back.

They took x-rays, drew blood, gave her an iv with fluids, and swabbed her nose. We even got her to pee in a cup for them, which impressed the nurse a lot. Finally around 4 a.m., they told us that she tested positive for RSV and the ER doctor wanted to admit her to the pediatric unit.
It took another hour, so sometime around 5 a.m. she was finally taken to her room on the 4th floor, Pediatric Unit. They hooked her up to oxygen, another iv, and a pulse oximiter. She was not happy about any of it for a while.

After Payton was situated and resting, David went home to get some rest. He came back around lunch time, right before we finally got to see the doctor. They decided that Payton was doing well, but she needed to stay for another 24 hours to be monitored. I went home after that to shower and get a little rest. The rest of the day and evening, Payton was almost back to normal and actually ate some lunch and dinner. I came back around dinner time, and we all just hung out and watched movies.

David went home while Payton was sleeping and came back in the morning. By lunch time, Monday, the regular doctor came to check on her and decided that she was well enough to go home later in the day. They turned off her iv and oxygen and started the discharge paperwork.

She was pretty crazy after she woke up.

While we waited for everything to get taken care of, we watched more movies. Payton even brushed my hair for close to 30 minutes.

She kept using her crayons as "spray" (I think she meant hair spray) but it looked more like she was coloring my hair with dye.

Finally around 3, all the papers were ready and she could go. They took out her iv and we just had to wait for the take-home oxygen. About an hour or so later, we were free to leave!

She took this last picture of herself, with my help.

Payton's doing a lot better. She has to be on the oxygen whenever she's sleeping, but she's fine with it. She slept a lot better now that we're home.

When we were at the hospital, David said to Payt... "if you wanted to see where I work, all you had to do was ask me. You didn't need to get sick to come here."

Sleeping Beauty

2011-02-16T13:49:00.004-07:00

Payton has CrAzY hair! She often wakes up looking like this, or worse. It's kind of fun to see how messy her hair gets sometimes, even during the day. I try to put clips or twisty's (tissy's as Payton calls them) in it to keep it under control, but she pulls them out after too long.

Self Sufficient

2011-02-15T12:20:00.003-07:00

Payton is becoming more and more independent. She always wants to pick out her own clothes and dress herself without my help. Today I helped her get dressed, but she picked out her outfit. She even did her own hair too, hair spray and all.

P.S. She thinks that tights are pants.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T13:04:00.002-07:00

Favorite Baby

2011-02-05T17:52:00.003-07:00

This is my "favorite baby" loving her Favorite Baby. I just thought this was a cute picture of Payton and her baby. She didn't really like binky's and she didn't have a "security" blanket... she has Favorite Baby.

If you asked her what she's doing in the picture she'd say... "I'm missin' her on the ip's".

Random

2011-01-31T13:15:00.003-07:00

I haven't posted anything on the blog for a while. I've been slacking, but we haven't really been doing anything "blog worthy". I decided to post a few random pictures of Payton.

So here they are...

She couldn't get her shirt over her head. It was pretty funny because she was really stuck and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it back on or off. I think she put this shirt on herself in the first place and found it was too small.
Payton was obsessed with this basket for a couple of days. It's supposed to have her stuffed animals in it, in her room. I guess she decided that it would be more fun if she was in it instead.
I had to take a picture of her the other day, wearing her usual "outfit". This girl drives me crazy. She has tons of cute clothes (see picture below) and yet this is what she looks like most of the day. She doesn't want to get dressed unless we are going somewhere, and then I make her get dressed. Then it seems like the second she is home and realizes she's still dressed, the clothes come off again. It doesn't matter what the temperature is inside or outside, she doesn't care. Hopefully soon she'll decide to stay dressed all day!

This is a look at Payton's many clothes in her closet. She has more than what is hanging up here, but you get the idea...

"Grandma Spoils Me"

2011-01-14T13:41:00.003-07:00

...that she does!

My mom sent Payton a bunch of super cute new clothes for Christmas and we finally got around to trying some of them on her. We decided to do a mini "photo shoot" and take some pictures. Payton is turning into quite the model. She would "pose" herself in ways that she thought made for a good picture.

Payton pose.
Another Payton pose.

Oh, and now she's a tiger. She saw the pictures I posted yesterday with the "tips" (that's what she calls them) and decided that she needed to be a tiger (that's what she is pretending to be when she has the "tips" in) again.

Creating the "tiger" look.

This was her "serious" look. She was actually trying to look like this, I think.

This one was her mischievous pose.

Pretty cute over all!

Sillyness

2011-01-13T11:07:00.004-07:00

Payton is so weird sometimes.

This is one of her favorite things to do after she gets out of the bath/shower.

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-01T13:08:00.004-07:00

I have finally gotten around to getting pictures from Christmas put on the computer. So here are a few...

It's tradition in our family to get new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. We didn't put any presents under the tree before Christmas Eve, so when she woke up from her nap earlier in the day, she couldn't wait to open the 3 presents that were waiting... pajamas of course.
It's also been our tradition to watch Christmas Vacation. When it was over, and the crazy music was playing, Payton put on her "dancing shoes" and danced all over the house. It was pretty funny.

When David was helping Payton set out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, he told her that they needed to get him some snacks. She went to the pantry and fridge and got these "snacks" for Santa Clause.

Looks like he was here.

At first Payton was just acting like, "oh ya... there's mom and dad's stockings" until we pointed out that Santa left her some stuff in her stocking too. She ran over and started checking out what she got.

Her favorite thing in her stocking was her very own "make-up" (aka lip gloss and chap stick).

"Oh... my game!" That's what she said when she opened this present. She played with one at the store and LOVED it, so when she found out that she got her very own, she was SO excited. (Fisher Price iXL)

Payton was the best present retriever. David would send her to get a present and she would climb under the tree and find one.

Dad and Payt

David and I got a Nintendo DS and Payton got her iXL.

Mom and Payt... hanging out playing games.

Band aid

2010-12-24T21:07:00.004-07:00

This morning while Payton was in the shower, she got soap in her eye. She was screaming and crying and the only thing that would make it better was...

a BAND AID!

She wore that band aid on her eye for a really long time, until we told her she needed to take it off.

Christmas Dress

2010-12-20T10:39:00.003-07:00

Payton got to wear her new Christmas dress to church yesterday. She looked SUPER cute! When I told her it was time to get dressed in her fancy purple dress, she got really really excited. She's been wanting to wear it all weekend.

This is the hair bow I made to match her dress. I waited until the last minute to decide to make one. She loved it because it was sparkly.
I had her stand up so that I could get a picture of her whole outfit (minus shoes).

I made everyone take some pictures really fast before we left for church. They were all blurry except this one and it didn't turn out very well either. Oh well, one of these days I'll get some better ones of all of us.

P.S. My dress is hanging weird and looks like I'm wearing a mu mu.

Doctor?

2010-12-11T11:39:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, David came home from his family medicine rotation with his white coat on and his stethoscope around his neck (he usually doesn't have them on when he gets home). When Payton saw him she said, really excited, "Daddy, you're a doctor!?!" It was really funny and really cute. She hasn't seen him in all of his "doctor gear" for a while, and so she was excited to discover that he was a doctor!

Barfing...

2010-12-08T22:17:00.003-07:00

Tonight, I was helping Payton eat some spaghetti-o's. She told me she was done and that she needed to "barf". I asked her if she was sick and she said "uh huh, I barf in toilet"... and so that's what she did. Here's a video to prove it.

Obviously, she didn't really "barf", but it sure was funny to watch and listen to her. After she "barfed" she was fine and went on with her evening.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-12-01T11:43:00.003-07:00

This Thanksgiving we had visitors at our house... my family drove over from Utah. It was fun to have them come see where we live, and check out Colorado Springs. The last time any of them visited, we still lived in Parker. Here are a bunch of random pictures I took while they were here. Most of the pictures are from our outing to the Garden of the Gods.

Payton decided that she needed to color on herself again, while she waited for everyone to get here. I asked her what she was doing and she just said, "Go Boise!" I think she thought it was a stamp or something or maybe face paint like the fans on the TV.
She goes and goes until she crashes on the floor. She's always afraid that she's going to miss out on something.

David, Steiner and I went to the Black Friday sales at midnight. One of our purchases what this super cute puffy coat from Old Navy, and the fleece gloves too.

Payton and Tanner were playing noodle fight. Check out her facial expression.

The 2 Simpson's addicts hanging out. I went upstairs to check on them and this is what I found. When I said, "oh you're sitting together?" Steiner said, "ya... she wanted to." He was smiling, I just didn't get a picture of it.

This is the start of the Garden of the Gods pictures...

Payt and Papa were being buds on the walk. It was cute to see them together.

Here we all are...

Just the 3 of us.

Rock climbers

David being David. Check out that pile he left.

Make-up Artist

2010-11-15T10:22:00.002-07:00

Payton always wants to play with the make-up I have. It's pretty interesting because I don't really wear much, and most days I only put on mascara. Well, on Saturday while we were all getting ready to run some errand, Payton decided she needed to get ready too. I just let her play while I did my hair and then when I was done, we cleaned it all off. She knows that she can only play make-up if mom is watching her. She did look pretty cute though.

Projects

2010-11-13T22:29:00.002-07:00

I have been working on a couple of projects on the computer. Here are pictures of them...

My first project was to make a collage of pictures for the mat around our Family Proclamation. My mom did the mat around the Living Christ for us, and I've wanted to put pictures around the Proclamation since we've been married. Well, I finally had the right computer program to do what I wanted, so here it is... finally finished.

I also posted a picture of the 3 pictures hanging together so you could get an idea of how they look.
The other thing I've been wanting to make was a picture with our last name. These type of pictures are really popular right now, but they're pretty expensive to just buy one. I thought it would be fun to make my own. It's a lot more difficult than I thought. You have to be really creative to find things that make the letters you want. It's hard.

I also wanted to post a picture of all the things I have hanging on the wall together with the "name" picture. I still want to add more, but this is a good start.

Coffin Races/AF vs. UT

2010-11-07T13:12:00.008-07:00

I've been slacking again about posting things. I'm finally getting the last pictures from our Halloween weekend up on the blog. Saturday was pretty busy too. We heard about the Emma Crawford Coffin Races in Manitou Springs, so we decided to check it out. It was pretty funny, but kind of hard to see any of the races since there were so many people. The first bunch of pictures is from the race.

Sorry the picture of Payton isn't better, but that's the best I could do. She wouldn't cooperate.

Here are a couple of the coffins. They had tons of different ones and they were all really interesting.

This is a group of racers getting ready to go. I'm sure you can get an idea of what they were all like. They had to have a "coffin" and an Emma Crawford to ride in it.

In the evening, we had tickets to the Air Force vs. University of Utah football game. Payton loves to watch football and so we thought it would be fun to take her to a game. It didn't hurt that the tickets were only $5 each.

She was watching the guys who jumped out of the airplane and parachuted onto the field.

Here she is cheering for Utah.

It was pretty cold and she refused to wear her jacket or coat, so we finally convinced her to wrap up in the blanket we brought to sit on.

Mom and Payt!

I was trying to get a cute picture of Payton with the field in the background, but yet again, she wouldn't cooperate. Oh well.

Their concessions were actually pretty reasonable, so we all got a treat. Payton got hot chocolate... what else would she want. She is addicted to that stuff.

These are a couple of videos of Payton cheering for the team. I think she might be watching a different game than we were... just kidding. You'll understand what I'm talking about after watching the clips.

Boo at the Zoo

2010-11-01T17:45:00.003-06:00

Friday night we hurried back home to take Payton to Boo at the Zoo. We wanted Payton to have her first trick or treat experience, because she was finally big enough, but we were going to miss the ward party. She had fun, got some candy, and was able to see some of the animals. We'll have to go back again sometime during the day just to visit the animals again.

She fell asleep in the car and had just gotten up, so she was a little hesitant at first, but by the end, she was a pro!
The cutest Kangaroo at the Zoo! Everyone kept saying how cute she was in her costume.

Payton and David got to pet the giraffes.

We tried to get a picture with the city lights in the background, but it didn't really turn out. It was really cool up there though. The zoo is way up on the mountain right behind our house, so you can see all of Colorado Springs.

A snake.

As soon as we got home she dumped out her bag and dug right in to her candy.

Here is a cute little video of Payton saying Trick or Treat. I didn't get one of her while she was still in her costume.

Busy Weekend

2010-10-31T20:47:00.002-06:00

This weekend was a busy one for us. On Friday, David had a meeting at the school, up in Parker, so we decided to drive up there with him. Payton and I hung out at the mall and the fountains outside the mall while we waited for David.

Payton looked super cute with her Halloween hair clip. She officially pulled the whole thing apart on the way home, though.

After we were done in Parker, we hurried back home to take Payton to Boo at the Zoo! Check out the pictures on the next post...

Utah/Idaho Trip Part 5

2010-10-28T12:15:00.002-06:00

Okay, here is the final part of our trip before we drove back home to Colorado. We were in Utah again, for my dad's birthday.

Payton kept sun tanning out in the back yard. She discovered the lounge chairs out there and kept going to lay out.

Of course she had to help Papa open his presents. She thinks all wrapped presents are actually for her.
We were supposed to have a birthday party for my dad, but it fell through, so we just went out to dinner instead... Happy Birthday Papa!

One day Payton decided to BBQ her new baby she got from Aunt Pam and her cousin Katie. Don't ask me where she got the idea, but it was REALLY funny.

She even used the black ribbon to "tie" her down so she couldn't get away... I guess.

Pepper's favorite spot is to lay on the back of the couch or the chair, so Payton had to be like Pepper and lay there too. She is so silly.

Payton and Pepper were helping Uncle Tanner clean his new motorcycle. I don't know how much help they were actually being.

Payton got in the way and accidentally got sprayed with the water. Maybe next time she'll stay out of the way.

This was her look for most of the month. No clothes... finger in nose. She has gotten better about not picking her nose, but she hasn't gotten better about keeping her clothes on.

One day, Payton, Tanner and I went to Walmart to get some peppers (see them in her hand, she thought they were for her) and she wanted to ride with Barney. Barney is her all time favorite right now.

Utah/Idaho Trip Part 4

2010-10-20T09:41:00.003-06:00

Here are some more pictures from our trip last month. This part of the time, we were in Idaho again. Payton and I were walking around just taking a bunch of random pictures in the yard and she decided that she wanted to model for me. That is green gum in her mouth.

I tried to get a cute one of her with the fence, but she couldn't figure out how I wanted her to stand, so this is the best I got.
The neighbors down the street have cows and a couple of horses, so we walked down to check them out. There really are cows in there, I just didn't post a picture with them in it. Another day while we were waiting for David at lunch time, we went to the park behind the church.

Payton loves playing at the park. Her favorite thing to do is go down the slide.

Right behind the park is the river, so we took a little walk over to check it out. Payton had a blast throwing rocks into the water.

Another day we checked out some of the stores in town. Everyone must think Payton is so cute because she gets stuff where ever she goes... like this balloon. The owner blew it up special for her.

We drove up to Ketchum to check out some stores up there too. While we were there we found this little fountain, and the weather was pretty warm, so I let Payton play.

We didn't plan on getting wet, so we didn't have anything to change into, so I let her run around the fountain in her diaper. There wasn't anyone around, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

Here is another treat that she was given. We went into this little boutique and the owner lady there, gave her this chocolate moose "sucker". She is one lucky girl.

On Friday night it was the high school's Homecoming football game, and since David played football and I did cheer leading, we thought it would be fun to go and see how things had changed. Payton loves to watch football.

This is her "cheer leading". We sat on the side with the away team because there wasn't very much room on the home side. You can see it in the background. It was pretty full.

Mini Photo Shoot

2010-10-14T19:24:00.002-06:00

I haven't taken or gotten pictures taken for Payton's 2 year birthday. I finally got around to trying to take some. They turned out okay. It's frustrating because I can't get her to look at me and smile.

Here are the best ones....

Utah/Idaho Trip Part 3

2010-10-10T17:35:00.003-06:00

This part of the trip, Payton and I were back in Utah.

At the orthodontist office where my mom works, they were having spirit week and one of the days was "crazy hair" day. We found these little headband-hair extensions at the dollar store, and Payton thought they were hers.
Another "crazy" hair-do Payton thought she would try was, nasty dog water hair. Like I said before, she is obsessed with Pepper's dog dish of water. She stuck her hands in it then, got her hair all wet. It was pretty funny.
(Don't worry it's a clean bowl and clean water).

She helped "Papa" put a shelf together for her room at home.

She rode in one of those quarter rides at the grocery store, while eating string cheese... multi-tasker.

Rode the horse some more.

Ran around in the yard with Pepper, a lot.

Played with Pepper.

One day, she came walking from the very back of the yard, saying "sasses" (glasses) and it really looked like she had some one's glasses. When she finally got close enough to see what she had, I realized they were swimming goggles. She thought it was so funny to wear them... and it was pretty funny.

My mom found a bunch of my old clothes that are Payton's size. One of the outfits, was this Halloween cheer leading costume. I got my old pompoms out for Payton to play with too.

We all went to Sam's Club one Saturday, and right inside the doors, were these huge chairs. My dad sat in one so I could take his picture. They are pretty big.

Utah/Idaho Trip Part 2

2010-10-07T08:54:00.003-06:00

David had to start his rotation on the Thursday before Labor Day, so we all drove up to Idaho.

Payton slept most of the way, every time we went back and forth, so it wasn't too bad of drive.
David had to drive the Beetle back up for his dad. It was at David's sister's house in Layton.

Sun Valley always has a big parade and car auction during Labor Day weekend. We hadn't been in a really long time, so the 3 of us (me, David, and Payton) all drove up to watch the parade. We put our chairs out in front of the church (LDS church in Sun Valley) and walked around while we waited.

The whole celebration is called Wagon Days. The entire parade is non-motorized, and the main feature is the giant ore wagons that were used back in the day when Hailey and Ketchum were mining towns. They used to pull a lot more wagons, but it got too dangerous to turn corners, so they cut back the number of wagons that are pulled.

David found the car he wants someday. This Corvette.

Payton enjoyed watching a few ice skaters practicing at the Sun Valley Ice Rink.

On our way back to our seats, a lady gave Payton this cute little cowgirl hat. It was advertising for someone running for office. She loved it.

(P.S. Payton's clothes are a little too big, so she looks extra silly in this picture).

Watching the parade.

Being crazy.

They wanted me to wear the hat too.

Payton went through at least 3 different hair-do's while we were there. She would mess it up, and then the rubber bands would break and so she finally ended up with this "do".

David got this little car out of the garage for Payton to ride. She couldn't quite figure out how to peddle it, but she still had fun trying.

David had to fix one of the sprinklers in the yard. The dog thought it would be fun to play in the water while the sprinkler was getting fixed. Payton thought it would be fun too, and so she got herself and her baby wet.

Utah/Idaho Trip Part 1

2010-10-04T14:37:00.002-06:00

We were in Utah and Idaho for the entire month of September! David asked to do a family medicine rotation for school, up in Hailey, Idaho so that he could spend some time with his parents. Payton and I spent about half our time in Idaho with David and half in Utah at my parent's house. I have a lot of pictures to post, so I'm going to space them out over the next week or so, to make it more exciting. Here are some from the first part of the trip.

Payton thinks it's really fun to climb in the suitcase and shut herself in. I guess that way we'd be sure not to forget her.
When we drive to Utah, we stop off at Grandma and Grandpa Torgersen's house to spend the night. It's about 8+ hours to their house. When we got to Provo, we stopped to eat In and Out for dinner! Payton loved the hat.

Here's a cute picture of Payton and Grandma Torgersen.

After church, we left Provo and made a quick stop in Orem to see Grandma and Grandpa Houston, and Della, Morgan, and Chelsea too. I didn't get any pictures of them while we were there. Oops!

After visiting for a little while, we headed up to my parent's house in Syracuse.

My dad finally put the bouncy horse together for Payton, and she LOVED it. She even found Steiner's cowboy hat to complete the look.

She always plays in Pepper's water bowl, and this time she thought it would make a good bathtub for her baby.

I used both camera's (the big nice one, and the little Kodak) while we were gone, so some of the pictures aren't as good of quality and they may be a little out of order. I'm sure you can figure it out though.

New Car

2010-09-08T17:15:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, we traded in my VW Beetle for a brand new Ford Focus. After a lot of thought and a lot of searching, we found a car that fit our needs and budget. When we were at the dealership waiting to sign all the papers, Payton HAD to try out the Mustangs. She wouldn't get out of the car, and when we tried to make her leave she cried. Later when we asked her if she liked our new car, she shook her head and said "ssss Snake". She thought our car had a snake on it like the Cobra's at the dealership. It was pretty funny.

the Wood family

6 Weeks

Just Pictures

1 Month Check-Up

Due Date

4 Weeks

Newborn Pictures

Crib Quilt

2 Weeks

Going Home

1 Week

Kate Lillian Wood

Christmas 2011

Christmas Photo Shoot

Traverse City, Michigan

Southfield, Michigan

Bay City, Michigan

Corpus Christi, Texas

Happy Halloween

Family Pictures 2011

Fall

Car Seat Cover

Halloween Hamburger

Halloween Preview

The Last

More Randomness

Belly Picture

Projects

Lacrosse Season 2

Busy Payton

Casper, Wyoming

Extreme Makeover

Hair Bows

It's a ...

Viva Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas Part 2

Photo Shoot

Payton Turns 3

4th of July

Tanner's Wedding

50th Anniversary Party

Hair Cut

Sprinklers

Just Stuff

Memorial Day

Photo Booth

~*~*~

Ready to Rumble

Lacrosse

Exer-Slide

Steiner Benjamin Houston

Build a Bear

Happy Mother's Day!

Style

Lucile Harvey Torgersen

Forever Families

Cool

Helper

Donuts

Lucky Day

"Grown Up"

Hair Cut

RSV Update

ER to RSV

Sleeping Beauty

Self Sufficient

Happy Valentine's Day

Favorite Baby

Random

"Grandma Spoils Me"

Sillyness

Merry Christmas!

Band aid

Christmas Dress

Doctor?

Barfing...

Thanksgiving Weekend

Make-up Artist

Projects

Coffin Races/AF vs. UT

~~~