p-p-popcorn!

Look at this COOL popcorn maker we just bought! Well, okay -- our church officially bought it for church events, but we ordered it on Ebay and had to just try it out to make sure it worked, right? It was VERY fun to pop some popcorn at our mom's group last week...the kids (and adults) LOVED the yummy popcorn!

a new vacuum?

We are in dire need of a new vacuum (well, okay I think we are at least!). I have been cleaning more than I usually do, since our house has been on the market since March -- I feel like I am CONSTANTLY cleaning and our vacuum doesn't seem to be able to keep up with me!

Well, this blog mod*mom is giving away a Dyson pink vacuum -- check it out! (Maybe I'll win!!)

our new favorite sport...

Aaron has taken up the game of golf and is dedicating himself to learning all there is to learn about being a good player. From previous posts, you can see Payton is enjoying learning right alongside her daddy!


We borrowed a toddler golf club from Jeffrey and Payton took a liking to her 'own' golf club!

Lions & Tigers & Bears -- OH MY!

Well, okay, there aren't any tigers or bears, but somehow a pack of lions have entered our house! Not sure where they came from or how they entered, but for some reason they are here and we're not sure how to get rid of them.

The suspense is killing you all, isn't it?

Payton has woke up for the past 2 days from her nap and/or in the morning talking about the 'lions'. On Monday, she woke up crying and screaming about, "get the lions out of here", "get them out of my bed". She was actually shaking when I picked her up out of bed!

She doesn't talk about them during the day and the babysitter said she doesn't talk about them there...so, I guess the lions are only at our house, when she closes her eyes. I am racking my brain trying to think of where she saw or heard about lions, but I can't think of anything. The only thing I suspect may be a Diego episode or something -- you know, he's the animal rescuer and all!

Tonight, when we put Payton to bed and were saying our prayers, she said, "Jesus protect me from lions"...yes, she DID say that! Poor thing...I hope it doesn't get worse...she hasn't woken up in the middle of the night...yet.

If you can't beat 'em....join 'em!

Well, it's been raining now for 3 days straight and we decided we were SICK and TIRED of staying in the house...so, we joined the rain outside and had some good fun!

Baking Queen

On these rainy days, we like to BAKE! Our favorite is chocolate cookies bars. I am a 'lazy' baker and don't really like to make the cookie version, so we mix it all up and throw it into a pan and bake away. This time, I let Payton do some of the measuring, so I wan't 100% sure how much of each ingredient we actually used...Aaron was a bit nervous. (for those of you who know me, you know that I don't really 'measure' when I'm cooking or baking...I'm just not wired that way). Well, they turned out just fine and we've been enjoying eating them all weekend!




Payton's favorite thing to do -- lick the beater!




We did make cut-out cookies too -- I found a VERY EASY recipe...we really had a good time!

Dreamers

So, do you think dreams and dreaming, in general, are genetic? Aaron says that he doesn't dream much and I dream CONSTANTLY, even though I don't remember all of them. When I dream, I am often active -- just this week, I woke up Aaron by hitting him in the face. Okay, it wasn't on purpose -- I was dreaming that a rat was chasing me and when he rolled over and bumped into me, I thought it was the rat in my dream and I went off and whacked him! Then, as he was attempting to wake me up, I opened my eyes and saw our ceiling fan turning around and I thought it was a VERY LARGE spider falling down on me -- so, of course I screamed -- wouldn't you if a GIANT spider was coming toward your face? When I finally fully woke up, I heard Aaron say, "okay, I'll just be over here" and he curled up in his corner of our king-sized bed!

One of my most vivid dreams was when I was still in high school and my grandmother passed away. I dreamt that we froze her in a large ice block and she was 'sitting' next to me on the couch and she kept falling over on me...not sure what that meant?

Last night, we were checking on Payton before we went to bed and we saw her grabbing at things in the air and sort-of moaning....maybe she's dreaming of spiders too? We have heard her talking in her sleep before and moaning and whimpering too. So, that just makes me think about dreams and if they could possibly hereditary? What do you think?

CONTESTS

One of my blogging friends, Amy -- who actually got me hooked on blogging, blogs here and here and here and she has a 'secret' blog...haven't really had time to find that one! She blogs at this cool site where they review lots of infant/toddler/kid products and they run contests ALL the time -- this time, Mums the Wurd is running a contest for some cool toddler ware from SuperMomz -- check it out if you want! I'm just trying to win! :)

pictures...

Pictures from the weekend.....a hair cut -- YES, we FINALLY sat still and didn't cry when we got our hair cut -- a HUGH milestone in Payton's life!

On Sunday, when we got "kicked" out of our house, we walked to the Baskin Robbins. Payton started with this little blue number,

tried a little bit of daddy's,

and ended up with my BELOVED chocolate & peanut butter!

My 2 cents...

Okay, we were kicked out of our house this weekend -- twice, in fact! For very good reasons -- we are still in the process of selling our house and we hadn't had a showing in almost 3 weeks, until this weekend. So, we were more than thrilled to have a showing this weekend. The first one on Saturday went well. Then, today, we received a phone call to show the house again from 4-5PM today, Sunday. So, Aaron & I packed up Payton and headed out in the sweltering heat -- went to the local Baskin Robbins, had some ice cream (pictures will be posted tomorrow), and then to the park. We ended up staying out until 6PM playing at the park and sweating profusely! When we got home, I inspected the house to see if they showed up, I stated, "I think they were a no-show"...THEN, the doorbell rang at 6PM!! TWO hours after they said they would show up! Did they not read the etiquette book on When buying a house:

1. Thou shalt not enter into a house in which prospective buyer, knows in advance, that they will not be able to afford the taxes (this one makes Aaron and I FURIOUS!)

2. Thou shalt attempt to call 1 day in advance to house showing (instead of 2 hours prior to desired showing time).

3. Thou shalt not enter into house during nap time.

4. Thou shalt not show up 2 hours late to a house showing that was set up the morning of said showing, on a day of 90+ degree weather with no relief in sight, without a courtesy phone call to tell current owners that possible prospective buyer is running late...


But, we smiled, said "give us 5 minutes to leave out the back door" and we walked around the block, parked our butts across the street (out of view) and waited for them to leave. Now, we pray that they will put an offer on our house and then all the above will be negated...