Santa

The kids are so excited for Christmas this year and I love how being around them gets me super excited too, seriously I haven’t been this excited about Santa coming to our house since I was a kid!! Colton talks non-stop about how Santa is going to bring us presents and how he wants a blue bike and a backpack, he says that Kaci needs a pink bike and a backpack, but I am pretty sure Santa will say she is still a little small for a bike. Our ward Christmas party was on Saturday and I took the kids to see Santa while Weldon stayed home with Preston. While we were talking about seeing Santa and sitting on his lap the kids were both really excited but then for some reason Kaci started worrying that he would tickle her and she was stressed about that but still excited. When we got to the church and actually saw Santa Colton was so excited that he looked like he was about to giggle and his smile was so big. He ran right up to Santa and got on his lap and told him all about the blue bike and backpack that he wants. When it was Kaci’s turn she freaked out and started crying and wanted nothing to do with him, so rather then force her up there only to get a picture of her crying and Santa looking really uncomfortable I just opted not to have a picture of her on his lap this year. Here is Colton with Santa.

When we got back in the car Colton got after Kaci for not sitting on Santa’s lap because he was really concerned that because she didn’t tell him what she wanted that she wouldn’t get any presents. I told them that it was ok and we would just mail him a letter telling him what Kaci wants for Christmas. When we got home Kaci was funny though because she told Weldon all about Santa and how fun it was. Silly kids, hopefully next year we get a picture of both of them with Santa, and maybe Preston too!!

Just Fun Pictures

One morning while I was getting ready the kids were playing in the closet and the next thing I knew they had both taken off their pajamas and came out like this. I thought it was cute and Kaci kept talking about her pretty “dress”.

Preston is such a happy and content little baby. He is such a fun addition to our family.

Here are Colton and Kaci before church last week. We still haven’t taken Preston yet so Weldon and I are taking turns going with the kids.

I love that he is starting to keep his eyes open longer and look around.

Kaci giving Preston loves

I have lots of pictures like this where I am trying to take a picture of Preston and Colton crowds in there and says “Cheese!” I think it is pretty cute!!

Life Since Preston

Things have been a bit of an adjustment around here going from two kids to three. I have heard that three is the hardest because now as parents you are outnumbered but so far that hasn’t really been the case. It hasn’t been really any more difficult in that sense, but it is different because now as a parent you are constantly saving the new baby’s life from their very loving siblings who are just so excited for the new baby and who want to hold him all the time and don’t understand that only Mama and Daddy can pick him up.  The other day I took Kaci to the bathroom and was just gone maybe 30 seconds and come back to see that some how Colton had lifted Preston out of the bassinet thing and climbed on to the couch with him and was sitting there holding him. Talk about nearly giving me a heart attack!! Here is a picture of how I found Colton sitting and holding Preston.

He was supporting him pretty good but I still had to try and explain to him that he wasn’t supposed to get Preston out of his carrier.

Just this morning Kaci was trying to give Preston kisses while he was in his bassinet thing but she couldn’t quite reach him and she almost fell in on top of him so I told her if she wanted to give him kisses she needed to ask for help and not do it that way. I helped her kiss him and then turned around to keep making breakfast, when I turned around not even five seconds later she was in the bassinet with/on him. She was sitting on his feet but I don’t think that much of her weight was on him because he didn’t seem upset at all but I had to pull her off him and tell her that she could not get in the bassinet either!! So I guess it is more work because the other kids love him so much and you really have to watch them.

They are really so sweet though. Every morning when Kaci wakes up the first thing she says is “Where’s the baby?” and that is followed by “I kiss him?” Kaci is always wanting to hold him and kiss him and she is always willing to help out in any way she can.

Colton is also very sweet and involved. When Preston was a few days old we were on a drive and Preston started crying. Colton was really upset that the baby was crying and as soon as we could pull over and give Preston his binky Colton was very relieved and he kept saying “Thanks for helping my baby!” He will also randomly say “I love baby Preston.” And today at dinner Preston started fussing a little and Colton said “Aww baby Preston, do you miss being in Mama’s tummy?”

Preston is so sweet and we all love him so much. He is so much fun to snuggle and I love all of the little puppy noises that a new baby makes. He has such kissable cheeks and he is sure changing and growing so fast. This time goes by so quickly and I am trying to cherish every moment.

I can’t get get this picture straight but this is Weldon and Preston taking a nap together.

We also decorated the Christmas tree a few days after we brought Preston home.

Goofy Christmas tree face!!

First picture of every one (except me) together.

Sweet sleeping baby

A few days after Preston came home it was beautiful outside and the kids were feeling cooped up so while Preston was sleeping I pulled him next to the open window so I could see him and hear him if he woke up and Colton and Kaci and I went out side to play. Since it was so nice I decided to take some pictures of the kids.

Colton is such a good brother, Kaci wanted to swing so he hopped off and pulled the swing back for her so she could swing. It is cute to watch these two interact and see how kind and considerate they are of each other. They remind me every day how I need to be. I am excited to watch their relationship with Preston grow and it will be so fun to watch all three run an play together.

Kaci’s excited swinging face

Colton with the neighbors cat Hobs

The day was really nice out side so I decided to wake Preston up and we all went on a short walk down the road. Look at those darling smiles!

I love the fall colors

Colton took this picture. He sure loves to take pictures and love the cell phone camera as well as my camera to take pictures of what ever he can.

Tummy time

Kaci laid like this on the floor by him for almost an hour just looking at him and sometimes holding his little hand.

We are so blessed to have such sweet little people in our home.

Introducing Preston

On Monday November 26, 2012 little Preston Weldon Payne was born. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long.  We decided to get induced on this day so that Weldon could get the whole week off of work to be home with the family. We went in to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning, they broke my water at about 10:00 that morning, started me on Pitocin around 3:00 that afternoon, I got an epidural around 5:00 and he was born at 10:40 that night. It was a long day just waiting around for him to get here. Things went well though, I only had to push for about 30 minutes, so that wasn’t bad at all. I was so tired by the time he was born though just because we were in there so long and it was so late at night by the time all was said and done and I was able to go to my room. Weldon was wonderful as always, but I always feel so bad for him just being there and waiting because it has to be so so boring for him, it is boring for me too, but I have to be there!! I am so glad that he is willing to just sit there and wait with me though because it does help the time pass faster to have someone there to talk too. He is a wonderful support and help during the pushing part too because he is so encouraging and kind, even going above the call of duty and holding a plastic tub for me to puke in ( nobody tells us these things before we have kids) but no matter how unglamorous childbirth is, they are so worth it!! I am very grateful that I have been blessed with the ability to have three beautiful children and that every thing has gone well during each delivery.
I love being able to hold my babies for the first time. I have carried them for nine months, but for the first time I get to see them and hold them in my arms and feel their skin and count their toes and it is such a sweet moment. Another favorite moment is watching Weldon hold them for the first time because for the past nine months they have been my own little friend and I have experienced every little movement that they make, but now I get to share them with my best friend and see how happy he is to finally meet them as well.  It is also fun and so sweet to introduce the new baby to their siblings and watch how excited they are to meet him. It amazes me how loving and gentle children can be when holding a new baby for the first time, and how proud and grateful I feel when looking at my three beautiful children together.  I feel very blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family.

Just waiting around in the hospital, but I can’t think of a better person to spend the time with!

Holding Preston for the first time, just seconds after he was born. He didn’t  cry much, just let out a little wail, and then just grunted and groaned a little.

A proud handsome Daddy!

Colton and Kaci meeting Preston for the first time. They were very excited to see the new baby and see that Weldon and I were alright, but the hospital scared Kaci a little bit.

When the kids came to visit with Monie they brought some beautiful flowers and a box of chocolates. It was very sweet, and they really enjoyed helping me eat the candy!

My Family!!!

Kaci with Preston

First kisses from Kaci

Checking out the baby

Colton holding Preston

First kisses from Colton

Colton and Mama and Preston. Colton thought that it was the coolest thing ever that my bed would move when you pushed a button, but it scared Kaci so she wouldn’t sit on the bed with us to get a picture, silly little girl.

These next few pictures are of our first day home with baby Preston. It was so good to be home, when we drove up the kids came running out side and acted so glad to see us. It made me feel really good. They were so sweet, Kaci ran up and said “you ok Mama?”  and wanted to know if the doctor gave me shots, and Colton wanted to know if we brought the baby. Their concern over me and the baby was just heart melting. Kaci was much more at ease now that we were in our house and holding the baby made her excited and giggly, she kept laughing and saying “Baby funny!!” and “silly baby!!” I think those were the only words she could think of to explain her happy excited feelings. It was cute to watch. Colton really really wanted to feed the baby a bottle, it was something he mentioned often when we would talk about having the baby, that he wanted to “rock the baby and feed it a bottle” so we had some formula that the hospital gave us and he got to feed Preston. Before that happened though he made us die laughing because he saw me nursing Preston and he said "what are those?" I said "uh, these are Preston's sippies, this is how he gets his food." he watched for a few seconds and then lifted up his shirt and said "mine are open, can I feed him?" It was very funny!

Feeding Baby Preston

So excited about the new baby!!!
Life is good for us, we sure love Preston and are glad he is here!!

Kaci is Two

Well my little girl turned two several days ago. I seem to say this all the time but the days and weeks and years are just speeding by!! It seems like she was just born a few months ago and I can’t believe that it has been two years. I hear people all of the time talk about “the terrible two’s” and just how hard two year olds are to deal with. I couldn’t disagree more!! I love this age. I love the personality that really starts to shine through and the independence that they are learning. Some times I jokingly call her “Kaci Dewit” because any time I try to help her with something she says loudly “No! Kaci do it!!” and that is how it sounds to me, Kaci Dewit. She is so sweet and loving and gives the sweetest kisses, even if they are a bit slippery. Kaci is not a rule breaker, or even a rule bender. No means no for her and there is not any way around that. For example if you tell her not to touch something there is no way she is going to touch it, or be ok with any one else touching it either. It is funny sometimes to hear her lecturing Colton, or even Weldon, not to touch something.
She is so much fun, she loves to look pretty, loves to have her nails painted, loves shoes and baby dolls, loves to have a ‘pretty bow’ in her hair, and loves to be snuggled. Sometimes during the day she will come up to me and say “hold you Mama” and want me to pick her up. Most of the time I really try to take a few minutes and hold her or sit and snuggle her because I know it is not going to last forever and I want to enjoy it while I can.
I think Colton was more excited for her birthday then she was, but I think that is mostly because he knew what was going on and she wasn’t so sure. He picked out a pink cake mix at Wal-Mart the day before her birthday and insisted I get them to make cupcakes for Kaci because it was pink.

This is Kaci when she first woke up and we gave her one of her presents. She got a new doll, new church shoes, new tights, some cute slippers from grandma Shurtz, a card and some money from Monie and Papa, and a balloon and a bracelet from Grandma and Grandpa.

Kaci and her new dollie

So excited!!

This is Kaci rocking her new baby. She was really funny to watch as she would fling her torso back and forth in order to make the chair rock.

For her birthday we did our toe nails just the same and they were so cute!! We did our fingers the same too but she wouldn’t hold still long enough to take a picture.

looking so cute before church on her birthday

Her pink cupcake with pink frosting

Frosting is the best!!

I don’t know why this is crooked, but I just wanted to show off her cute little curls, because I absolutely love them!! It is lots of fun to fix her hair and she does pretty good for the most part except if I take too long she gets impatient, but still for a two year old she does exceptionally well.
We all love this little girl and are so grateful for her and the joy she brings to this family.

Little Kids are Hilarious!!

So I don’t have any pictures for this post, these are just funny things that the kids have done this week.

On Sunday we were walking out of church and Colton was saying something about him being ‘Colton Bear’, and Kaci being ‘Kaci Bugs’, and I said “and I am Mama” he looked at me and very seriously said “ yeah, you’re a big Mama!!” I don’t know if he was referring to my being a grown up or to my Whale sized pregnant self at the moment but either way I laughed really hard, now I have to refer to my self as one big Mama!

That same day, just a few minutes later when we reached the car there was a big nasty green caterpillar right by Kaci’s car door. I was holding her hand and stopped to show her the caterpillar. Kaci is very worried about snakes, and in the past when we have seen millipedes she has freaked out and wanted to be held to be kept safe from the ‘snakes’, so I guess I was expecting a similar reaction to the caterpillar but I was amazed when my prissy little girl acted fast as lightning and stomped on the caterpillar in her sparkly church shoes. I cant believe how fast her little foot moved!! Then she kept saying “Yucky bug! Don’t touch it!”

About Wednesday this week Colton was in the bathroom and he flushed the toilet about three times which sometimes means that he is just flushing lots of toilet paper down the toilet which is what I suspect happened, but when I went to stop him I couldn’t tell for sure if he had or not so I didn’t say any thing. A few hours later Colton went to the bathroom so when he was done I went in to see if he needed any help and I flushed the toilet, which started to over flow. I ran to the other bathroom and grabbed the plunger and while I was trying to get it unclogged I was frustrated and I started lecturing Colton on why he can’t put so much toilet paper down the toilet because it makes a big mess and so on, to which he replied “I not make a mess!! YOU make a mess!!” That made me stop and think, I guess to his almost-four-year-old logic it was me who made the mess, after all I was the one who put toilet paper in it and flushed it the time that it overflowed. It was funny to think of it that way and it helped me not be mad at him.

Also speaking of toilets, Kaci is completely potty trained now, and I can’t really take any credit for it because she pretty much did it all by herself. She tells me if she needs to go potty, and will even wake up in the middle of the night and call me if she needs to go. She wears her big girl underwear everywhere and so far things are going great. I can’t believe it!! she is not even two yet and she is potty trained, I was planning on waiting until after the baby came, but she hated her diapers so bad and would take them off and we would find her with some of Colton’s underwear from the hamper and she would be trying to get them on so she could have underwear too! So we just went with it and got her some of here own and she loves them and picked up on the whole concept of keeping them dry really fast. I am ridiculously proud of her for being such a big girl!

Popcorn Balls

When the kids went “Trick-or-Treating” to Grandma Shurtz’s house on Halloween they each got a popcorn ball and it brought back lots of memories of how every year we would get popcorn balls from Grandma and Grandpa Shurtz on Halloween. I told Grandma that I had been meaning to ask her to show me how to make some and she invited us over to make some. It was really fun and they turned out so good!

Here the kids are watching the air-popper as they help Grandma make popcorn

These are the finished popcorn balls, we made some small for the kids. They are so good and it makes me feel like a kid again to sit down and eat one. The kids like them too and I think they had fun watching us make them.

Halloween

I was going to be all creative this year and make the kids some costumes, but I just ran out of steam and it never happened, so the night before Halloween I was at Wal-Mart with all of the other procrastinators to buy the kids some costumes, and I feel very lucky to have found some in their size at all! Colton was a football player and he LOVED his costume. He kept saying “Thank you Mama for my outfit!” as he ran around bashing his head into Weldon and trying to tackle him. He was funny. Kaci liked hers too, but she likes anything pretty so I thought she would, the only thing was that she wanted something on her head too, so we just got out a head band and a bow and she was happy.

Here the kids are looking super cute and ready to go trick-or-treating

First stop Grandma Shurtz’s house where they got yummy popcorn balls!

Next we went to the “Trunk-or-Treat” where we saw my parents and Shane and the kids got lots of candy. (excuse the very pregnant, very puffy me. Only four more weeks!!)

Finally we went to Monie’s and Papa’s where the kids each got a kite, a little book, and some candy. They decided they liked the whole idea of Halloween after they realized how much awesome stuff they were getting!

Earlier in the day we did a Halloween craft and made little bats out of egg cartons, here are some pictures of the kids doing that.

I had them take their shirts off because after I bought the paint I realized it was permanent, and little kids and permanent is just a bad combo!!

A finished little bat.