Peyton's 1st Day of School- in the 2's room!

Sweetest little girl ever!

Dance Dance Dance!

Over the summer I enrolled Peyton in a dance class through the Gilbert Parks & Rec department.  For 4 Saturdays, Peyton and I went to a dance class and acted goofy!  We ran around like different animals, balanced beanie babies on our bodies, and pranced around like fairies!  We had a great time and we were sad that it was over!!

Baking with Great-Grandma

Recently I saw a post on a friend's facebook wall for some delicious looking treats.  I checked out the recipes and thought that it would be fun for Peyton and I to bake something together.  Since I am not a blueberry fan, I decided to substitute raspberries (don't ask about shopping for raspberries... and I will never buy raspberries from Fry's again!!) 

Anyway, here is the recipe and a few pictures. 

Blueberry Raspberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 32 bars - ummmm... only if you cut them REALLY small...
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1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries raspberries
1/4 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch substituted flour for the cornstarch but I can't remember the conversion
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1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
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2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
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3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

  

Unfortunatlely, Peyton did not enjoy the crumb bars and insisted on eating a cookie instead.  Oh well... that left more for me and Grandma! :)

Prescott

In an effort to get out of the heat for a few hours, Mom, Peyton, and I went up to Prescott!  

Play Date Fun!

Abby & Ella invited Peyton to a play date at "The Play Factory".  The place has lots of cool stuff to jump on, climb on, slide down, etc.  Most of the bounce houses were too big for the girls, but they enjoyed the toddler area and dragging Kelly and I down the "big" slide.

 

Peyton's BFF's for sure.  These girls are the sweetest!

 

Peyton finally got some courage and loved jumping around! 

(But dragged Mommy into the bouncey area with her!

4th of July

We celebrated on the 3rd of July this year... actually we celebrated on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
On the 2nd, Lisa and I took the babies to downtown Mesa to see fireworks.  We inadverntly parked RIGHT next to the building that the fireworks were being shot off from.  Brady was not thrilled with this location and he covered his ears the entire time (with Lisa's hands and his!).  Peyton was bothered by the noise for a while but then took my hands off her ears.  She would blink and jolt a bit each time there was a loud boom!  I'm pretty sure Brady didn't stop talking about fireworks the entire ride home... and Peyton insisted on calling them firetrucks.  No matter how many times we told her that they were fireWORKS, she kept saying fireTRUCKS.
On the 3rd, my family came over for a cookout.  The babies had their matching shirts on so we of course had to take pictures. They are so fun to watch today.  And they are so lucky to have each other-so close in age and so close in proximity too! Lucky cousins!!

 

On the 4th we just hung out as a family.  That night we let Peyton play with sparklers while in her jammies.  

More Summer Fun

Happy Father's Day!

Ready for Tumbling... we went to exactly one class.  It was the free introductory class.  Lots of fun and lots of great activities but way too expensive for us!  It's a great way to get your child to socialize, but Peyton does that all day long at daycare, so I don't think she really needs a class that costs more that Josh's college classes!

We celebrated Josh's 30th birthday at Joe's BBQ in Gilbert.  We love that place... especially the $10 free on your birthday!

More summer fun with the water table. 

 Painting... I was making lunch while she painted... I should have known that something was up when she was super quiet.  She painted her paper, her hands, face, belly, arms... and many other objects!  Needless to say she got a bath before lunch time.

 Duke was so thirsty that he had to get in the pool so Peyton could give him a drink.

Checking out the bunny at the Phoenix Zoo.  We were there SUPER early so lots of animals were out!