A nice clean playroom!!!

Now that Christmas is over ... its time to get my house back into order. The first thing that needed to be done was to clean out the playroom. We had to put the old toys away and make room for the new ones. I really needed the new ones off my living room floor and put in their rightful place. So ... this weekend ... we cleaned and organized the playroom. This is no easy task if you have seen how many toys my child has. I mean it looks like we run a daycare. Oh well ... she loves her toys and I love buying them for her!!!! Anyway ... here is the nice clean playroom (for now). One task down ... Next is the living room :)

Of course as we were cleaning it up .. Payton was right behind us playing with her toys and getting them all back out. If she wasn't so dang cute .....

Jumping in her new trampoline that Larry and Tammy got her!!!

Christmas Day ... Santa was HERE!!!!

On Christmas morning ... I was anticipating Paytons reaction to what Santa had brought here... She still doesn't completely understand it all ... but I was still hoping!!! When she came out of her room into the living room ... she looked at the tree and then saw that doll house that was in the living room. My parents gave her the doll house on Christmas Eve and Nick had just put it together for her to play with on Christmas morning. Well once she saw the doll house it was over ... thats all she wanted. She kept saying "thanks santa for my dollhouse" and I had to keep telling her that Santa didn't bring it ... grandma and grandpa gave it to her. After she played with it for a bit ... she decided to check out the tree and started to open some presents. She would open some, then play for a hour or so, then open some more. She finally finished opening presents about 5 pm.

SANTA CAME!!!!

Payton loves her new doll house that Grandma and Grandpa gave her!!!Opening Presents
Playing with presents
Trying out her new Trike ... hasn't really figured it out yet.

Anyway ... My parents came over in the afternoon for Christmas dinner and we sat around and played with Payton, ate and chatted. It was a wonderful day!!!! I have the most amazing family I could ask for and I am so grateful for everything god has given me!!!

Oh yeah ... Nick and I opened up our gifts to each other about Midnight on Christmas Eve. We figured that we would focus the whole day on Payton and we wanted to open our gifts together in private!!! Nick got a New Laptop, 3 xbox games, and some tools stuff. He got me a big sparkly 2 carat diamond ring (WOO HOO), a new camera lens, a new computer cord, and a flash diffuser for my camera!!! I love all of my presents (esp. my nice shiny ring)!!! Thanks babe!!!! I love you bunches!!!!

Christmas Eve!!!!

Like every Christmas Eve ... we celebrated it with my family. I think its the one day that the whole family gets together in the same house. The kids play and wait patiently to open presents and the boys drink to their hearts content ... Oh the joy of the season. We had a wonderful time this year and kids were great!!!

The Shams - Xmas 2008

Payton checking out the presents!!

The kids!!!

The kids waiting to open presents!!!
Playing ... Payton and Tad are the bestest of buds!!!

Payton and Tad eating Pez ...

So ... My brothers decided to get my mom to do shots. If you know my mom ... you know that she DOES NOT drink. Needless to say ... Joey got 6 shots of Tequlia in her ... and himself :) and they were both feeling no pain!!! Of course I had to take a picture to make the occasion!!!

Merry Christmas Grandmas and Grandpas!!!! We LOVE you!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Paytons first reaction to Santas presents!!!!

Payton's Big Girl Room!!!!!

Paytons Christmas Present from her grandparents and us this year was her Big Girl Horsey room. We have spent countless hours putting it together and it is finally done. It turned out amazing and Payton loves it!!!! All we have to do now is get her out of the crib and into her big girl bed ... which is much easier said than done. Who would of thought that she would prefer to be locked up in a crib over a big open bed... but she does. To help speed up the process ... we turned her crib into a toddler bed today ... we will see how it goes tonight. Once we finally get her crib out of there ... we have a horse wall game that will take its place. The only thing we need now is some wall art ... and I am still on the hunt for the perfect pieces. Here are some pics ... let me know what you think!!!!

Crazy slipper socks????

So yesterday while out shopping ... I found these super cute crazy slipper socks. I thought they were so cute and fun so I bought a couple of pairs for presents and for myself. When I got home and showed Nick ... he thought they were the tacky things he had ever seen. He made gave me such a hard time about them ... that today I went out and bought other stuff instead. I did keep my pair ... I think they are cute .... Whats your opinion????

Oh yeah ... Payton loves them too~~~~

Payton's new letters for her room

So ... for Christmas we are redoing paytons bedroom into a big girl. Her theme is Horses(imagine that) ... and I need to add a girly touch to the room and incorporate the blue in her bedding that is not in her current room. So I decided to redo her letters .... Here they are. The blue in the letters isn't showing up in the picture well ... but you can see it in person. What do you think??? I am not sure when I became so crafty!!!!

If you click on the image ... it blows up bigger!!!

Christmas at safety town

On Sunday we had my parents over for dinner ... Its always nice to have a big family dinner with both of our parents there. Payton loved all of the doting with having 2 sets of her grandparents there at once ... she was definitely the star of the day!!! Anyway ... Carol, My mom and myself decided to take Payton to Christmas at Safety Town. Safety Town is a little town made for kids. Its so cute and I can't wait for Payton to get older and be able to take advantage of all it has to offer. So we headed out ... Payton got to see Santa (she loves him from a distance), she did manage to give him a hug ... but it took some talking into. She ran around like crazy, got a tattoo, played in the firetruck, and had her first candy cane. We had a great time!!!

Walking hand and hand with Grandma and Grandma!!!

Playing in the Fire Truck!!! Not sure why kids love this so much....

Now this was funny ... Payton was trying to stick her candy cane in the ground like the lighted ones for decoration ... sometime you just wonder whats going on in her head....Payton and the snowman!!
Attempting to get her nose painted like Rudolph... she chickened out!!!
In the sleigh with Grandma and Grandma!!!

Carriage ride in Deerfield

On Saturday night we decided to take a carriage ride through Deerpark community in Plano. Payton is obsessed with both horses and Christmas lights ... so we figured that it would be a huge hit for her... and we were so right. She loved it!!! She had the best seat in the house and could see both the horsey and the lights. She would talk to the horsey and yell at the Christmas lights and we had a blast. This is one more thing that we are going to make a annual tradition for the holiday season!!! It was the best way to see the lights ... and we didn't have to deal with the traffic.

Carol, Me, Payton, Nick and Wayne

The beautiful lights as we approached them.

Wow ... can you imagine how long it took to do all that decorating!!!
Trying to get a family picture ... but Payton wanted to see the horse and lights instead....

Payton's new horse!!!

For Christmas this year ... we all decided to redo Paytons room and make it a BIG girl bedroom. The theme of course would be horses!!! She just loves them ... and although I wanted a pink cameo room ... its her room, not mine. While Carol and Wayne were here visiting ... they gave Payton her Christmas present ... a Fur Real Friends horse. She LOVES it!!!! Her favorite thing to do with the horse is feed it right now ... she will sit on it but isn't so sure about that part yet. The horse is bigger than her and is animated ... Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!!! Now I can't wait to get the rest of her room done!!!!

Grandma and Grandpa come to visit!!!

On Thursday, Grandma and Grandpa Briant came into town for a visit. Payton was so excited to have them here and to get all of the attention. Once they got here ... we dropped Grandma off to shop and Payton, Grandpa and I went over to going bonkers to play. She was so excited and didn't want anything to do with momma. So Grandpa and her were up in the tunnels playing while I got to sit it out and relax. After picking up grandma from shopping ... we headed to get lunch and home. Payton took a nap and then she played, played, played. Its so nice to have others around to keep her entertained... I got a nice little rest!!!

Payton and Grandpa playing with the little people barn. She was so funny ... and only wanted grandpa to play with it with her all weekend.

Here is their creation~~~~

Grandma brought Payton some of her stacking dolls that she had when she was a kid. Payton LOVED them ... she wouldn't stop playing with them until she figured it all out.

Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade

This year I decided to take Payton to see the Christmas Parade in Dallas. Nick had to work so I was alittle nervous about venturing out in downtown that early by myself ... but we had a blast. We were supposed to meet up with The Scowdens but ... we were at different sides of the parade and never made it. So ... I walked along the parade route and ran into some friends from work, The Smiths, and Payton and I joined them. They had the best seats in the house ... we were right on the curb with no one in front of us (Thanks Jim) ...

At first Payton didn't know what to think of the parade ... she just stood there for the 1st half hour staring at the bands, floats, clowns ... in awe. After she warmed up ... she was screaming Merry Christmas, woo hoo, Ho Ho Ho and all of the wonderful Christmas cheer. She was giving high fives to all the characters and clowns that would venture over in our direction. Her favorites of the day was the Horses ... Yes she is just obsessed with horses and today it was no different. She also loved all the big floats and characters and bands. We had so much fun ...

Look Mom!!!

Mr. Potato Head

Yeah for the parade~~~

Yelling Hi and Merry Christmas to all the parade people

Frosty the Snowman

Santa Float

Giving Elvis a High Five~~~

Me and my sweet baby girl!!!!

Wearing her antlers as a necklace ... thats my girl!!!

Walking her reindeer on a stick....

We had a great time and we couldn't of gotten any luckier running into Jim and Michelle!!! We had a amazing time and we are definitely going to make it a new Christmas tradition!!!! Hopefully Next year Nick will be able to join us!!!