Fort Worth Visit

Last weekend we headed to Fort Worth for a quick trip to visit the Bates' and Davis'. As always, we had such a sweet time connecting with these dear friends of ours. And this time, there were 7 kiddos under the age of 4!! It was one busy household especially with 6 of those kiddos being boys!! Sadly, there was only a few times that all the kiddos were awake at the same time so we weren't able to get a group shot but the pic below shows Ainsley playing with the older boys.


While there we visited our alma mater, TCU, to see all the new additions to the campus. SO much has changed but it was still refreshing to see all the purple and horned frog spirit, since in Austin we are constantly surrounded by UT's burnt orange! Here we are in front of the horned frog that your supposed to kiss for good luck on exams.


Ainsley LOVED frog fountain!!




Emily with her twinkers, Matthew and Caleb...


Ainsley was being a little flirt and wanted to hold Caleb's hand while we were walking. Then she got Matthew to join in the fun. It was so sweet to watch!!


Still her daddy is her #1 man! Here she is giving him some snuggles on the way back to the car...



We love you Fort Worth friends. Thanks for such a wonderful weekend!!

Perfect lil Tree

This year I debated and debated about whether or not to go through all the hassle of getting a Christmas tree and putting up decorations since we aren't going to be spending much of December in Austin... but when I saw these cute little trees, I just couldn't resist. And I'm so glad I didn't!! A few weekends ago we had such sweet family time listening to Christmas music, getting out all our Christmas stuff, hanging lights, and decorating our little Charlie Brown tree.


As a special treat we were going to let Ainsley sip some hot (warm) chocolate... but since we live in Austin and it was 60/70ish degrees, we opted for cold chocolate milk instead. Ainsley was in heaven and so happy with her treat!! Here she is slurping down her milk and dancing to Christmas music.



Here are Ainsley and I playing with a nutcracker ornament that George and I got after seeing the nutcracker in Fort Worth just before our wedding. When you pull the string, its legs and arms fling out and we were making "ahhh" noises to accompany it. Even though we were just being silly, there was still something sentimental about playing with Ainsley and this ornament which was bought 5 years ago when our family was just a dream. But then again, with my hormones... everything in my world right now feels sentimental! :)


Lately I've been impressed with how gentle Ainsley can be when she wants to. She was so careful with all the ornaments and the lights... but we did have one causality. I would have sworn this was made out of plastic when I gave it to her. Oh well.


Watching Daddy wrap lights around the posts of our front porch outside...


I just can't get enough of that sweet curious face...


After our house was all decorated we piled into the car and drove around the neighborhood to enjoy everyone's holiday decorations and lights. I wasn't sure if Ainsley would be old enough to enjoy this but she got so excited looking and pointing at all the lights. Anytime we drove through a dark patch she would sign 'more, more' over and over. It was sweet and definitely a new tradition in the Peyton household!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

My Lil Nativity

This year we got Ainsley a nativity set that she could play with herself and she loves it!! I have to say it was pretty special when we were opening it and I was telling her the Christmas story because I can remember doing this same thing with my mom and brothers when I was little. At this point she is obviously just looking at it like a new toy, but I imagined us going through this same process year after year and it just felt special to carry on this important tradition with her.

15/16 Month Snapshot

Ok, this is so late but I have been writing it in bits and pieces over the past few months and better get it out before I have to add 17 months to the list! So, here is a glimpse into Ainsley's world at 15-16ish months!


At her 15 month dr's appointment her stats were as shown below. Compared to her stats 3 months earlier, we were shocked to see that she grew 3 inches and only gained about a pound!! Thankfully since then she has gained a few more pounds and is finally over 21 pounds so that we can finally turn her carseat around!!

Height: 32.25 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds, 10.2 ounces (10th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (10-25%)

Molars... Ainsley now has four full teeth on top, three and a half teeth on bottom, and both her top and bottom one-year molars coming in. We definitely knew something was going on the few weeks before she turned 15 months because she ran a slight fever and developed a drool rash on her chin. But after about a week of Tylenol, cries, and extra snuggles she was back to normal... and then a week or so later we saw those pearly white molars starting to poke through.


Naps... Around 16 months Ainsley officially dropped her morning nap and so is now just taking one long nap in the afternoon. We have been shortening her morning nap to just an hour for a month or so now in order to ensure she took an afternoon nap, so we knew this transition was coming. I was initially hesitant about whether or not I'd like this change, but now I love having more time with her in the morning and more time to myself in the afternoon! Win-win!!


Chatty-chatty... Ainsley's vocabulary has really taken off in the past month. She now has several words under her belt and it is wonderful to be able to communicate with her better. I love her sweet little 'uh-oh' even though it usually means there is something I need to go clean up! She has also grasped the idea of signing and will sign "eat", "all-done", "more", "please", and "down". Her sign for please is a big smile with both hands pressed together on her chest and it melts my heart each time.


Shoe and feet obsession... Admittedly odd, Ainsley has an absolute obsession with other people's shoes and feet. When this obsession began, I thought it was probably a phase, but it has now gone on for several months!! Our feet are the first thing she wants to play with in the morning and the first thing she buries her face in when either one of us comes home. As odd as it is, she just loves them.


One of my favorite, favorite characterics of Ainsley right now is her sweet hand-holding. Several times throughout the day she will reach up to grab our hand before she walks into the next room or out the door. That little hand is just so sweet as she holds tightly on our fingers and I just cherish it... because I know someday she'll be too cool to hold mommy or daddy's hand.

Turkey Day!

As it should be, this Thanksgiving was full of family and food! First, we headed to Dallas to spend time with George's dad's side of the family. We had such a blast seeing everyone but I wasn't as good as capturing it all as I should have been. Here are some things I did catch... above is some of the family... from left to right, George's great aunt Patricia, George's dad Bailey, George's grandma Nancy, George, and Ainsley and me.

Below is George's dad Bailey teaching Ainsley how to "cheers" with her milk! Now she wants to "cheers" all the time!! :)


George's great aunt Patricia delighted Ainsley with a small case of bubbles she had in her purse. It was so sweet and Ainsley actually caught on and was able to blow some of the bubbles herself.


Here she is blowing bubbles with Daddy. Look at those sweet lil fat cheeks all puffed up!!


Ainsley giving grandma Nancy some snuggles...


Then we came back to Austin to see George's mom, Pam, her husband, Harold, and his brother and sister. Below is a pic of George and Ainsley with his mom.


Ainsley having fun pulling uncle Ray's beard...


Grandma Pam brought Ainsley her Christmas presents early and Ainsley was lucky enough to get this awesome rocking horse. Ainsley is so in love and spends time everyday riding the horse, patting its head, and snuggling its tail. She's already a lil cowgirl!!


Happy Thanksgiving!! We love you guys!! See you all soon!! xoxox

We're having a...

... BOY!!! We had our 20 week doctor's appointment today and found out that there we're having a lil boy!! Everything looked healthy and normal and we are SO excited that Ainsley will have a little brother in a few more months! Below is a clear picture of his boy parts. Ha! We're embarrassing him already... but I was thankful to have such a clear view so that there isn't any mistake!


Here is one of his sweet lil boy feet.

Grandma and Me

Last weekend George was out of town on a golf trip which gave my mom the perfect excuse to come for a girls weekend! We had such a fun time and Ainsley and I definitely enjoyed getting spoiled by all Mom's yummy cooking. Ainsley can now add pomegranates, beets, squash pizza, and lentil soup to her list of favorite foods. :)


While Mom was here there we finally visited the Austin's Children Museum. Ainsley loved this train that traveled around in a loop every time you pushed a button. She ran to all the different viewing spots to see the train chug along. She just kept going choo-choo. It was so cute! Here she is watching the train take off from the station.


She was amazed with this magnetic chain thing. She kept wandering back towards it in awe.


Mom, on the other hand, was pretty amazed by this steam machine. :)


The next day Austin had a food trailer festival at a park close to downtown. It was a gorgeous day and there was lots of yummy Austin food. Between the shrimp etouffee stuffed pastrys, steak tacos, tofu sandwiches, and cake balls, we were all in heaven!!


Ainsley got tired of being pushed in the stroller so she decided to do some pushing of her own!


We had such a great visit! Come back soon Mom!!