Florida & Cruise- December 8th-17th

**WARNING:Most of these pictures are in order. But towards the end they are not, and I did not feel like moving them all around :)

*** AND I do not do well in humidity!!! So don't mind how gross I look and how soggy my hair looks!

We flew into Florida at 10 pm on thursday. Payten did really well for such long flights. Thankfully the 2nd flight that was 4 hours, she fell asleep for about 2 hours. Then she was entertained by a little boy acrossed the isle and by Deven, Grandma Bird, and I!!!

Then friday we spent the day exploring what Miami had to offer. We went to the everglades and were going to do an airboat ride but as you can see in the picture below it was a little stormy just then. So we just explored the animals that were there. It may look like it was not bright for us, but the direction we were looking for the picture was extremely bright!

Deven was brave and held an alligator, I DID NOT! I would not even touch it!

We took a duck tour (land and water) through Miami. It was a 2 hour tour and surprisingly Payten did good checking things out!

Chris & Shani's family got there on friday night. And then we left for our cruise on saturday morning! Us waiting for the shuttle to pick us up!

Now waiting in line to get on the ship. That day for some reason we did ALOT of waiting!

They had dress up nights on the cruise ship for 2 nights, but we only dressed up for one of the nights. The other night we wanted to be lazy and just relax watching an out door movie!!
Our dinners each night took us about 2 hours and Brighton and Payten did really well sitting through the long dinner.

There was a couple behind Payten she loved to play with and throw things at. She was entertained by them. Luckily they had a one year old (they left him home) so they loved Payten!

We would always meet in the same spot to have breakfast in the morning and touch basis with everyones plans.

Payten loved the cruise and checking everything/everyone out!

The sunsets on the cruise were gorgeous!

My adorable parents!

St. Thomas- absolutely beautiful!

My dad, Chris & Deven did a lot of snorkeling.

I HATE HATE HATE FISH!!! But I did really well for how friendly the fish were at our stops. I would swim by myself if Deven was off snorkeling, but if he was around he would usually be holding Payten and Me :)!!!

There was something about the calming of the ocean because it put Payten right to sleep when we would be out swimming!

A lady gave us some dog bones and tolds us the fish with come up to you and nibble at the food. The dog food does not dissolve like a normal cracker and lasts a long time! I was not too sure about using the bone to attract the fish around us! It worked really good though!

Grandma Bird was very nice to hold wet Payten as she slept! Grandma was definitely wet after Payten woke up. Payten LOVED Grandma Bird!

St. Johns was behind us.

The taxi in St. Thomas! It was like a roller coaster getting over to the beach we swam at. Sapphire beach!
After about 3 hours of swimming we went back to the ship to change and then headed back out to explore the little shops at St. Thomas.

2nd stop- Puerto Rico! Payten was ready for the next day of exploring.

Out on my parents balcony on the ship looking at Puerto Rico.

While at Puerto Rico we took a tour around the city! Another 2 hour tour and the kids did really good again! The streets were so tight, and yet the tour guide still drove a big 12 seater van down the tight roads.
This was a little scary going down the hill and seeing how sharp this corner was going to be. The driver did have to do a lot of backwards and forwards driving to maneuver around Puerto Rico.
This is the worlds smallest home in the Guiness book. The yellow building is a guys home!
After our tour we then walked around exploring Puerto Rico.

Leaving Puerto Rico


The cruise ship had a big outside movie theater. During the days at ports Payten did not get her full naps so by the evening times she was a little tired.

She was such a good girl at dinner!

At dinner they would have a thing called Didja (did you ever want to try...) and every night was something different. Deven and my brother Chris were the only daring ones. This is alligator!

Who doesnt love dessert!!! Deven would always get the chocolate melting cake with an extra scoop of ice cream. I loved the unlimited amount of soft serve.

Brighton and Payten absolutely loved each other. Every time Payten saw Brighton she got so excited and had to try and touch him! She is pretty close to being able to say his name!

Turks & Caicos
This place was absolutely beautiful! I must say the caribbean all around is pretty amazing!

Once again we were playing in the water and it put Payten right to sleep again. 2nd time falling asleep in the ocean!

This time we put Payten on the sand so she did not get Grandma all wet again.

I was very proud of myself because I actually snorkeled in Grand Turks. Since our honeymoon Deven told me I was banned from snorkeling with him. On our honeymoon I snorkeled but swam on top of Deven in the water and every time I saw a fish come really close I would push Deven under and almost drowned him :(. But this time I just swam next to him and did not freak out when the fish came close! Man I must say, in my older age I am getting a little braver :)

Random pictures on the ship

On the last night they had a let it snow party. You cant see in the picture but they had big bubble machines that made it look like it was snowing. Payten got them in her face.

Our waiter was great and always tried to make and entertain Brighton and Payten.

We walked into the store on the ship and Payten had to have every stuffed animal. We got her one and then a couple days later Deven went for a walk with Payten and he came back with another stuffed animal. We are going to be in trouble when she gets older.

The nightly towel animals Payten was not sure about. She thought she needed the sunglasses and not the animal.

We were famous, on the big screen on the ship!

Payten loves loves loves the water. She could not get enough of it.

More pictures of St. Thomas

We kept trying to get her to give him a kiss, but she would not!

Overall she was so happy the whole time.

A couple more of Grand Turks

Randomly and a bit gross, Payten put her cereal on the table and started eating it off like a dog.

This was her bed, It was just the metal bars with no patting on it. And Payten was excited when she first saw it and bunked her head on the bars. She likes to sleep pushed to the edges, so I took sheets/blankets and made her own bumper.

There was a little crack under the door where she could see our feet, so whenever someone went into the bathroom, she crawled over so fast to peek under and jabber at us!

Getting ready to fly back home

The cruise was an absolute blast! Taking Payten on the cruise made it so we did things a little different. Like going back to the room a couple times a day for her to take naps, didn't do so much of the night life on the ship, etc. But truly we still had an amazing time. We loved taking naps with her each day and just enjoyed having a little more of a laid back cruise. I could not imagine going on it without her. We loved having her there and getting to see her face so happy when she explored and saw new things. We wanted to go on a family trip and knew it would be a little different having a one year old! Stoping at the ports were a little hard having them back to back so she did not get good naps. But at the ports at she was able to fall asleep in her stroller or in the water. She had so much fun and so did we! We can't wait for more family trips, I think until all our kids are out of the house, I hope that all our trips are with our kids!

11 months- November 22, 2011

On November 11th, it would have been 11/11/11 and in 11 days she would be 11 months!!! I just thought it was pretty cool how that worked out!

Payten randomly has started putting her arm up like that all by herself. I have gotten a couple of pictures of her doing that and it is do dang cute and funny!

In case anyone was still wondering, I do still have a thumb sucker!!!! You can kinda see in this picture, but her new thing is rubbing her top lip with her pointer finger while sucking on her thumb.

Payten absolutely loves little kids. She gets so happy when she sees them. And for some reason usually if it is a boy she will growl at them. She just can't get enough of being around other kids. With that said, she will not be getting another sibling any time soon, so she will have to enjoy her cousins!

Payten still has no interest in walking. She will take one and then just fall down and think that crawling is the better way to go.

She loves to wave hi or bye to people but it is usually when she wants too, never usually on cue when the person is looking. And she does this little wave with her hand that looks like she is telling you to come here.

She continues to sleep well and through the night if she is not sick, and got her good naps and well feed throughout the day. She still takes her bottle 4 times a day with 5 oz. and enjoys eating 3 meals a day!

Deven and I laugh at this little girl so much every day! She brings so much joy into our lives and is constantly entertaining us. We are so grateful for her in our lives!

Halloween

Payten was the cutest kitty ever for Halloween! She actually let us keep her in it all day. And even let us keep the hood part on her. Payten went to our ward Trunk or Treat and helped hand out candy. I did not want to take her around and get candy because she is too little to eat it and so I would have felt dumb getting the candy for me to eat :) Next year she will be able to eat her own candy though!!!

Deven and I did not dress up but we at least wore orange and black, so I think we get points for that one!

10 months- October 22, 2011

-Continues to love playing with her tongue, constantly sticks it out.

-If you say, "Look at mommy" she looks at me. Or,"Look at daddy" she looks at Deven.

It is really nice when I need her to pay attention to me or have her look at me.

-She points at everything and every one.

-Loves to sit on her knees and bounce up and down.

-Dances, when told to "Dance, Dance".

-learned how to maneuver her walker by herself. She can go until she needs to turn and then turns it by herself and readjusts it to be able to keep walking.

-When getting her ready for bed Deven and I both take her to her room to get her ready. On the way up to her room Deven chases us there and Payten laughs the whole way. Then when in her room we lay her on her changing table and then Deven says," Ok, buh bye" and walks out the door. She knows what he is doing and stares at the door. He then runs back in and says "boo" she laughs so hard and throws her body down and laughs more. We continue that for a couple minutes. Then we change her and Deven gives her loves. And then gives her to me. I finish feeding her and then we go brush her teeth and then bring her back in her room and tell her we love her and lay her down. She then goes to sleep!

-Still takes 2 naps a day and continues to sleep through the night until about 6 for a bottle and then back to bed until around 8-9. She will wake up in the middle of the night if she does not get enough food to eat during the day or does not get her 2 good naps.

-She LOVES food. Anything we eat, she loves to eat. Deven and I would feed her dinner and she would then be done eating. Then if she saw my parents eating anything, she would then have to eat what they were eating.

9 months- September 22, 2011

She just keeps getting so big and changing every day. We just love her so much!

Height: 28 3/4" 76%

Weight: 19 lb. 12 oz 55%

Head: 17" 18%

-2 days before her 9th month she learned how to walk by herself with her walker. Before we would have to help her do it because she would get out of control going too fast and would fall.

-You ask her where her tongue is and she will show you her tongue.

-Leads music when she hears music.

-Started walking along furniture

-If you tell her to kick or splash she will do it in the bath tub.

-Says "ooohh" constantly when she wants something. Which is pretty much everything she sees.

-Plays pat-a-cake

-Loves to babble

-Got top two front teeth!

She continues to take 2 naps a day for around 2 hours. If her first name is only 1.5 hours then her second one will be about 2.5. She keeps pretty constant with her naps being around 4 hours. She goes to bed at 9 and usually wakes up around 6-7 and has a bottle and then goes back to sleep until 8-9am.