The Legg Family- Ryan, Holly, Payton, and Elin: February 2013

Welcome 2013!! Wow! I don't quite know where to begin. Once again, time has gotten away from me, and we have had so much happen since my last post. From Christmas, to New Years, to anniversaries, new babies, etc., we have had a pretty eventful couple of months! Not to mention, Miss Payton is doing so many new things and learning and developing so much every week, I knew I had to take time to write! People REALLY are correct when they tell you that time goes by SO fast with children!

Since my last post, Payton has celebrated her second Christmas! She was a BLAST this year!! We were still a little afraid of Santa Clause (Payton is currently going through this phase where she gets pretty scared and is intimitaded by older males, and Santa Clause was no exception! haha!), but she did enjoy opening her gifts, and was a lot more fun to buy for this year, because we actually knew some of her interests this time! Ryan and I got her a large kitchen set, several baby dolls, a doll house, books and puzzles, and a large car that we can push her in. In addition to our gifts, she was definitely spoiled by our friends and family members, as usual! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives!

Ryan took off 2 weeks for Christmas! I knew that the holidays were going to be particularly difficult for him this year, given that this was the first Christmas he has had without his mom. Because of that, we decided to stay extra busy and focus on spending a lot of time together as a family. The three of us went to Nashville the week before Christmas. We enjoyed visiting the Opryland hotel, doing some Christmas shopping, and taking Payton to the park and Monkey's Treehouse, which she loved!! When we got home, we had Christmas at our house before heading to Fairfield for the week to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with our families. We spent New Year's with Ryan's brother Brent and his wife Ashli. Grandma and grandpa offered to babysit so that we could enjoy a nice dinner at the Haub Steak House, and boy was it delicious!!

I cannot believe how much Payton is growing and learning at this age!! It honestly seems like she does something new everyday! I have never been more grateful for getting to spend my days at home with her. After Christmas, I enrolled Payton in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. She really enjoys this, and it is again, another activity that gets her used to being with a group of kids, teaches her how to follow directions, and is great exercise for her! We've kind of gotten into a weekly routine. We have gymnastics on Mondays, go to 4c's play and learn group on Tuesdays, and have story hour at the library on Wednesdays. This schedule has been nice, and Payton seems to really enjoy and pick up on the routine of the week.

Since my last post, Payton has really taken off developmentally! She tries to say almost every word you ask her to, and has began to put sentences together! She has also learned some of her letters and colors. She can correctly identify the letters "A,E,I,O,P,R,S, and W." She can also identify the colors red, yellow, blue, and green! I am one proud momma! Also, the most exciting of all...She will say "I love you!" It's so precious to hear those words! Potty training is just around the corner. Payton will almost always potty on her little potty every time she sits on it! We haven't tried a whole lot to enforce it just yet with her being still somewhat young, but she does take a lot of interest and knows exactly what she's supposed to do. As soon as she can learn to tell us when she has to go, I think we will almost have it mastered!

Also since the holidays, Ryan and I have celebrated our fourth anniversary! Crazy to think about all that has happened in the last four years. We've had college graduations, careers, built a house, welcomed a new baby, changed careers, and like all married couples, experienced some challenging times in between these exciting moments. However, I don't think I have ever been more grateful for the guidance we have had from Christ and his design for marriage than I have been over the last year. I know that making HIM the foundation of our home has allowed these challenging times to mold into growing experiences. Thankfully, Ryan and I have both felt very strongly about this from the beginning, which has been such a blessing for us! I cannot wait to celebrate many other anniversaries and am very anxious to see where God leads our family next!

Finally, the last, most exciting event that has happened this year is the arrivial of our precious new nephew, Liam Elijah! Payton now has a cousin and a new little playmate! Ryan's brother and his wife, welcomed their baby boy into the world this week. It is so exciting to watch our family members get to go through such a wonderful time, and it brings back so many great memories of when Payton was born. However, as I was holding and admiring little Liam tonight I thought to myself, "there is absolutely no way Payton was ever that small." It's amazing how quickly they grow!! Holding him was an instant reminder of how important it is to enjoy absolutely EVERY moment, because it's unfortunately not going to last forever!

Below I have outlined some of the small sentences/phrases that Payton has been saying over the past couple months. We definitely want to remember these, and I can just hear her sweet little voice rattle them off in my head! (Boy, I hope I never forget what that cute little toddler voice sounds like!)

Specific phrases:

"Mommy, where are you?"
"I love you mommy/daddy"
"Awe, man!"- says this everytime something doesn't go exactly her way!
"Oh boy!"-says this when she's really excited!
"Where'd paci/blankie go?"
"There it is!"
"Help you, mommy."- which means help me mommy
"ok" -which means yes

Our first attempt at making Christmas cookies for Santa!

Great helper!

Putting icing and sprinkles on the cookies!

The finished product!

Our home after Santa's visit! Yes, that is a toilet brush! One of Payton's favorite things to drag out of the cabinet is the toilet brush, so Santa brought her her very own to play with! Haha!