Better late than never? 2013 Update Part One

So here is my official 2013 blog post.  It has only been 15 months since my last blog post- it's not THAT bad. Although, I do feel like I'm at confession or something. 
Anyway, I've pondered what this post should be about, or what is shouldn't be about, but I haven't decided on anything specific. So for now, I guess I will just do a few highlights (maybe some low points?).
We just finished celebrating Christmas which Peyton loved.  She mostly loved her Elf on the Shelf, Sir Tiger. She continually asks where he is.  I remind her that he went back to the North Pole with Santa - I'm pretty sure she thinks I am going to tell her that he must be around the house somewhere and he probably left her a present, too.  Not happening, kid. Not until next year, at least!
We celebrated with the Heilner side of the family on Christmas Eve, out at Tanya's house.  Peyton and Taylor love each other and claim they want to play together all the time, but when they are together they like to play near each other rather than together. A few tears are usually shed, but they they get into the swing of playing.  Peyton loves playing with everyone else's toys (who doesn't?) and Taylor LOVES showing Peyton all of her toys.  They crack me up.  Kaylee is getting so big and I'm pretty sure Peyton is jealous that Taylor has a baby sister!  
We celebrated with the Stearns side of the family on Christmas Day.  My parents picked up my Grandma from Scottsdale and brought her to my sister's house.  Since Peyton & Brady are closer in age to each other, they seem to have this cooperative play thing down a little more - that didn't stop a few tears from being shed though, I'm sure.  Pretty sure Peyton was cheating at some game and Brady was not impressed.  At least Peyton admitted to cheating, "just a little".  Brady insists she was cheating, "a lot". I'll venture to guess that Brady's version is more accurate.  Brady & Blake are having a fort/tree house/club house built in their backyard, so the kiddos loves playing in, on, and around that as well.
Prior to Christmas... why am I going in reverse order? Seriously? This makes it way more difficult.
Anyway, after Thanksgiving but before Christmas we loaded up the truck and headed just east of Payson to cut down a Christmas tree.  It will be fun, they said. Mother of the year (me) left Peyton's jacket at home (I swear it was in the truck!!) and it was snowing and cold.  Brilliant.  We had extra adult sized jackets and blankets so we bundled her up and didn't venture too far from the truck.  We don't have 4-wheel drive so we didn't attempt any snowy roads, but it was fun to see Peyton in the snow anyway.  Duke enjoyed the trip as well, but we almost left him on the side of the road because he wouldn't stop whining.  He was so annoying.  
Thanksgiving was hosted at our house for both sides of the family.  The Heilner side came over the weekend prior to Thanksgiving to celebrate.  They headed out to Carlsbad for Thanksgiving weekend.  The Stearns side came over on Thanksgiving.  This was the first year in MANY that we haven't had to juggle two Thanksgivings in 1-2 days and I have to admit that it was SO relaxing.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy celebrating with both sides, but it always seems that one family gets the short end of the stick and some one is always offended by something that happens.  Especially now that Peyton is here, we try to make sure that we see both sides of the family, but it is hard, especially when the four-year-old doesn't want to go anywhere.  Sometimes she just wants to stay at home and play with her own toys!  Especially at the end of the school week she tells me, "I just want to play by myself!"  I couldn't agree with her more!
Two last things to write about quickly: tball & dance.
First up: TBall.
Over the summer Lisa convinced me to sign Peyton up for tball.  Brady and several other friends would be playing as well.  The first practice was SO hot.  Ugh!  Anyway, Peyton liked being with friends and playing around, but the actually game of tball was not her favorite.  She especially did not like playing the outfield - I think she thought it was kind of boring.  We encouraged her to do her best each game, but more often than not she had to be forced onto the field at least one of the innings (they play at least 2 innings, sometimes 3).  The innings did get kind of long because each player is allowed to hit the ball, and most teams had 12 players. Hitting the ball was ok for Peyton, and she did ok for the most part.  I just don't think tball is her thing.  Maybe later she will love playing ball, but not yet.
Dance: Peyton has taken a few dance classes through Chandler & Gilbert Parks & Rec department.  I also signed her up for a Princess Dance Camp over the summer.  She loves the dancing, not so much the listening to directions. (Anyone who knows Peyton will not be surprised by that)  She would rather choreograph her own dances, I think. In August she started an actual dance class that meets one night per week.  Some days are great, others not so much.  She was, however, very excited to hear that she would be in a Christmas performance.  Her class danced at the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting (yes, we have tumbleweed trees in Arizona...).  Although she still thought of a few moves on her own, she really concentrated on her teachers over the weeks prior to the performance.  The night of her performance I was a nervous wreck.  She'd never been in front of a crowd like that before, so I wasn't sure how she would react.   She seemed a little nervous when she first got on stage, but then she did really well.  She got the basics of the dance down and then it happened... in some cross-your-feet-over-each-other move (technical term, I'm sure), her shoe lace came undone (bad mom didn't double knot it...), then she slipped when she stepped on the shoe lace, then the shoe came flying off her foot and down she went.  She wasn't sure what to do for a few seconds, then she attempted to get her shoe back on, then realized her hand was hurting, then burst into tears.  {heart breaking} Thankfully it was the end of the dance and the director made some comment like "wow you danced right out of your shoes!".  Josh and I met her right at the stage as she came off, sobbing.  She was so sad, mostly that her hand hurt. I was mostly sad that she fell!  As soon as she saw family waiting to tell her how amazing she did, she felt much better.  After a few minutes her and Taylor were being silly together and laughing.  I think my heart was still beating super fast for her!
I think I will end this first update there - lots of other topics I want to touch on, but not in one post.  Maybe I'll do better in 2014 with updates. Maybe not.