How Incredibly COOL Are These???

Today I came across a pretty sweet site and wanted to share it all with you. Being a graphic designer and all I'm a big "typography" nut...for those of you who don't know what that is, I like things that use type in an interesting way. Anyhoo...take a few minutes to check out Red Letter Words and the cool stuff they have. And then head on over to Simple Finds and enter to win your favorite one from Red Letter Words!!! All you have to do is leave a comment saying which one is your favorite - that's it! Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - Brownie Faces

What's better than having a couple days of school called off because of the -24 degrees air temps and making BROWNIES????? Yum.

Wordless Wednesday: Hanging Out With Mom

Here are some shots of my morning with Peyton as she's been home recovering from all the dental work she had done yesterday. Nothing makes ya feel better than licking beaters, right? :)

Tomorrow is D-Day...

DENTAL WORK Day for Peyton. The poor little thing. We're headed to Children's in St. Paul for a whopper of a day. Once we get all checked in and everything they'll get Peyton all set up to be put under. Then they'll get dental x-rays, and based on the last dentist visit, Peyton will need 2 crowns and 3 cavities filled. We're hoping the x-rays come back and that some of those cavities don't turn into additional crowns. Finally the dentist will wrap everything up by giving Peyton's teeth a good cleaning and then will come the "fun" part...waiting for Peyton to wake up. The last time she had to be put under she woke up absolutely hysterical - to the point that they came and got me out of the family waiting area and took me back to the post-op recovery area where parents generally aren't supposed to be. She was so worked up that I ended up climbing up in her bed and holding her because she had a death grip on the edge of the bed and wouldn't get go for ANYTHING. It was horrible. That was about 2 years ago, so I'm hoping she does a little better now that she's a bit older but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm preparing for the worst...and hoping she does fine!

When I took Peyton in for her first dentist appointment and found out that she had a zillion cavities I felt terrible. I felt like it was a sign that I wasn't doing a good job helping her brush or that I was giving her too many foods that were bad for her teeth. It was very reassuring to have the dentist tell me that the majority of Peyton's dental issues are a result of her being severely tongue tied for the first 2.5+ years of her life. As the dentist put it, "Imagine what your teeth would look like if you couldn't move your tongue to clear food away from your back molars AND you didn't really brush your teeth for two and a half years". Okay, that made a lot of sense to me, and definitely made me feel better. So, we'll get everything taken care of to repair the damage to Peyton's teeth and I'll stop thinking of myself as a mad mom. :o)

Please be praying that everything goes well tomorrow and that Peyton recovers quickly!! Thanks in advance everyone!!

New Furniture = EXCITEMENT!!!

Okay, so Chad got a call from a friend saying he's heard a local furniture store was having a HUGE 50% off everything sale. The guys headed up to the store and I told Chad to check out a couple of different end tables I'd seen on their website. We've desperately needed end tables to replace our pathetic set in our living room that we pieced together in our first apartment after we got married almost 9 years ago. We'd found a corner end table for $3 at an estate sale while up visiting my parents and then miraculously I found a matching one at the Goodwill for $5. So our existing end tables cost us a whopping $8 for the set. Back to my story...Chad calls to tell me pricing on some end tables I LOVED. He says, "Well, they were a bit more than what you probably had in mind". Apparently I have EXTREMELY expensive taste when it comes to end tables...the things were FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS a piece. Hyperventilate. Cough. Wheeze. Ouch. Obviously those were not even a remote option unless we'd want to live in a homeless shelter with our new fabulous end tables, so we headed up to the Ashley Furniture store at the outlet mall in Albertville. Much more up our alley! We were able to find end tables that both Chad and I love, AND we found a nice little dinette set for our kitchen that has matching bar stools (they're the same as the dinette set chairs, only a little higher) that we ended up getting for our island (the bar stools we have are on their way out thanks to a certain 2 yr. old's obsession with picking at the wicker tops). So, in 10-14 business days we'll be the proud owners of:

Not Your Average Snowman

I feel like I'm always posting stories about funny things Carson says/does, so here's a sweet one about Peyton. Yesterday at Occupational Therapy the therapist came out after she'd finished Peyton's session and she was chuckling to herself. As she sat down next to me and started talking about how things went she proceeded to tell me that they had been working on cutting with scissors and were doing a snowman project. The therapist had helped Peyton cut out circles and then they pasted the shapes onto some construction paper and made their snowman. Then Peyton was given some markers to decorate her snowman. Well the therapist said to Peyton, "How about we put some buttons on the snowman?". Peyton replied, "No buttons.", so the therapist said, "Okay, well what should we put on the snowman?". Peyton's response was, "gap". The therapist couldn't figure out what she was saying and asked her, "What did you say we should put on the snowman?", again Peyton replied, "gap". Finally the therapist asked Peyton to show her what she wanted on the snowman and so Peyton pointed to her shirt which said "GAP". She's been noticing "ABCD's" (letters) on her clothing and this morning she had asked "ABCD's say?". So I'd told her it said "GAP". She obviously remembered that and thought her snowman should be wearing the same shirt as her. The therapist and I had a good laugh once I explained this to her, then I asked Peyton what her snowman said and she replied "GAP. Peyton too!". Funny how their little minds work.

Wordless Wednesday - Slowly But Surely

Here's a little video clip of Peyton talking after we opened presents. For those of you who know Peyton, hopefully you can see the progress she's making with her speech. She's really doing a great job learning to compensate for the Apraxia!! Slowly but surely...we'll get there! :0)

I was tagged... (this is a fun one!)

...and the only reason I'm doing this one is because it seems really random. I like random. All ya do for this one is open up your picture folder on your computer and post the 4th picture. I'm on my laptop right now, so this is the 4th picture on here. This was probably when Peyton was about 7-8 months or so...just lounging on the couch. Wow, she's grown up fast!
















Now I'm tagging Jo, Katie, Sarah, Becky (Mom), Theresa, and Shawna. Open up your pictures and post picture #4!!