Say Cheese!

We had some photos taken of Peyton to mark her 2nd birthday!  Thanks to Slick Photography!  Here are a few of our favorites, you can see them all on Flickr here. 

Happy Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to our baby girl!! We now have a two year old as of November 10.  She had her 2 year check up and is doing very well.  Doc says her growth and development are excellent and has actually graduated from the baby scale to measure her height.  Next time she will do a standing measurement. 

2 year stats:

Height: 36.1 in (95%)

Weight: 27.3lbs (57%)

Head: 48 cm (63%)

I'm afraid the terrible 2's are upon us......She's really pretty sweet most of the time still but has started to rebel a bit more strongly, refuses to lay down for naps or bedtime on her own like she used to, gets up every night at 3:30 am and pretty much throws a fit when she doesn't get her way, which she does most of the time.  Still, we couldn't be happier and LOVE her to pieces. 

We had a little party with the family last weekend.  My dad made his vegetable beef soup and I made the yummy Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  She got lots of presents (not spoiled at all) including a Kitchen Set, portable DVD player, Simba and Nala, a bike, clothes, play dough and cowboy boots.  Here are a couple shots from the weekend. 

{opening her leap frog reader}

{new bike with no pedals}

{unwrapping was the best part}

{cheeeeeeese}

{blowing out her candles - make a wish!}

{elmo and abby play dough fun}

 

{playing with play dough - can't quite say "abby"}

Kyle, Nick, Tyson, Steph and I got to go out with some friends on Saturday night since we had a few babysitters around! 

{t|k}

{sisters}

{the girls - shelley, amanda, steph, me and erin}



Until next time....

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

A new obsession with Pinterest has lead me to the kitchen, and we all know I don't cook, bake etc....  Not that I can't, I've just never had the desire to do so.  Peyton turned 2 on Nov 10 so I was browsing Pinterest for party ideas and decided I was going to try to make Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  I found the recipe here but it originated from 52 Cupcakes, originally from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. 

Here is what theirs looked like and the recipe:

Ingredients22 Oreos: 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature (Neufchatel is fine)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 275 F.
2.Line 12 standard muffin tins and 4 ramekins (or 16 muffin tins, if you have them) with paper liners.
3.Place 1 whole Oreo in the bottom of each lined cup.
4.Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
5.Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

6.Beat in the sour cream and salt.

7.Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

8.Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.

9.Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.

10.Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Overall I think I nailed it!  They had to have used way more than 6 chopped oreo's in the mix so next time I will probably add more but they were pretty tasty!  Here's how mine turned out. 

And, since it was for Peyton's Party, I decorated them with Elmo faces.  My mom and Steph helped too!  They were pretty stinking cute if you ask me! 

{it's ELMO's world}

Beggars Night

So, of course we procrastinated finding Peyton her Halloween costume this year so didn't really get what we really wanted.  She has been OBSESSED with Rapunzel, Symba (Lion King) and now Ponyo.  Our original thought was Rapunzel but they didn't really make one small enough for her.  We also looked for an Elmo one since we all now she loves him, but no where had any left in her size either.  We ended up finding her ladybug dress on clearance already so it worked out and was still adorable.  We tried one last time to find a lion costume but no luck so the ladybug she was.  Gma and Gpa Dirks, Great Gma Verla and Tyson came down for beggars night.  For some reason, in Iowa they do trick-or-treating the night before Halloween and call it Beggars Night.  The kids are supposed to tell you jokes instead of saying trick-or-treat.  Some do, but most just take the candy and run!  Here's the only joke I remember....Knock Knock - Who's there? - Yodaleigh - Yodaleigh who? - I didn't know you could yodle!  We ventured out to three houses on the street and Peyton thought it was pretty awesome......after we left Grant's house.  We started at our next door neighbors house, they have two kids, Grant and Gabby that Peyton likes.  Well Grant was dressed as a skeleton this year and had a mask, Peyton did not like that one bit and was pretty scared of him.  I wanted to get a picture of them but even after he took the mask off, she wasn't feeling it.  After two more houses we decided it was too cold and went back home to hand out candy.  Peyton loved all the kids coming to the door.  Greg and Sheryl were just as excited about it as Peyton was.  Greg taught her that the kids come and get candy, then they go home.  So Peyton would greet them at the door, then say, "Go Home!"  Nice huh! 


{happy halloween!}



{little lady bug}

{trick-or-treat}

{so happy}

{Bopa}

{all clean after a long day}

Until next time....

Tailgate Fun

We headed up to Ames last weekend for the ISU/A&M game.  Kyle's whole family from Texas was in town and we had a blast.  This was Peyton's first tailgate, she even had her own little chair, thanks Uncle Nick!  Peyton and cousin Boston (BoBo) got along great and she says "bobo" all the time now.  She also says Sassy and JoJo, super cute.  I had a "good time" as well....needless to say, I was ready for bed by 3 pm. 





{boston giving peyton a kiss}

{chris, blake, tyson and kyle}

{kaleigh and i smothering tyson}

{peyton giving her cousin boston a hug - precious}

{greg and mary with their grand baby's}

{heather and bobo}

{holding hands}

{kisses for mama}

{kyle and tyson} - Yes that is drink in Kyle's hand, yay!



{mary and nissy}



{me and my two favorite brothers}

{bag boards turned slide - so fun}

{the car peyton and boston hijacked from the neighbor tailgaters}



{t|k}



{kaleigh and me}



{a gentle nudge, you go first bobo}

{race ya!}

{peyton's got bobo's cowboy boots on, she LOVED them!}
Every time we put her black boots on, she says bobo.

{they'll hate me for this one, but had to include bath time fun}
Boston splashed the whole time and Peyton laughed hysterically!



Until next time...

House for Sale, Goodbye and It's Fall "You All"

Hello there.  Some things have come and gone since our last post but the new venture I referred to last time is that our house is for sale!  For those of you heard.....NO, we are not moving to AL.  Plans in the company and division changed course so you can all rest easy, we are staying put in DSM.  Notice the title, "You All" instead of "Y'all!"  But, our house is for sale (ironically, before the whole AL thing even happened).  We are just testing the market to see what happens.  If we are lucky and can sell, we would like to take advantage of the low rates and get something new.  Check out our listing here:  http://www.15790wildwood.com/.  Thanks, to our friend Jeff Schulz for being such a great realtor and Kelli for "staging" it!  Looks nice huh?!  We've had a few showings and a couple people give some good feedback so we'll see what happens. 

Last month, Kyle's grandpa, Wayne passed away.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for the past year but is resting comfortably now and enjoying his family from above.  He was such a great man, husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather!  I wish I had the chance to know him like Kyle did but I am thankful for the couple of years I did have with him before he slipped away.  We love you gpa!  A bright moment of that week was Peyton and her cousin Jada got to play!  They got pretty good at "sharing." 

Carrying around Gma Sheryl's purse

Jada and Peyton singing tunes and playing piano

Peyton MAD because she couldn't actually play the Piano

Meet George, Jada's George.  Peyton stole it every chance she could.

This face just cracks me up!

Auntie Kaleigh

Well the leaves changed, the weather is till 80! but it's fall.  We traveled to MN last weekend for a family reunion on my Dad's side of the family.   It was so good to see everyone and the next generation of kids.  There are 10 grand kids including myself and almost all of us have had kids of our own now.  Peyton had a blast playing with all her new second cousins, unfortunately I didn't take any photos!  : (  We did get to a pumpkin patch in MN with Grammy Pammy and Auntie Stephy.  Peyton took off running straight for the bouncy house as soon as we got there.  Here are some pics.  Until next time!