Christmas has come and gone..

      Well Christmas has finally come and gone, and other than my house being overwhelmed with toys it went well. On Christmas Eve we had a little dinner here at the house with my family. We played a few games and I ended up winning nine dollars on scratch-offs! Wooh! lol. On Christmas Day we opened presents here with Payton then headed off to my parents to open gifts. This year was so much fun. Payton loved ripping the paper and actually acted so excited about what he got. (Even though I know he had no idea by looking at the box..) Chad and I got him portable DVD players for the car and a few small toys. He loves watching Mickey Mouse in the car and I can't say I mind it myself! (Car rides can be rough) Chad got me a beautiful blanket with our pictures on it. And as far as gifts from everyone else we racked in! Payton got at least 10 outfits and tons of toys. Chad and I got several things we needed/wanted for the apartment.

 It has been fairly cold outside lately and Payton seems to not care. On Christmas day we actually had a horrible storm with a few tornados and Payton (seeing the weather outside) still wanted out to play..

I found this idea on Pinterest and it turned out great! 

I used it for a centerpiece for Christmas Day and Eve.

The final product.. I loved it, it was our first green (and decorated) tree.

Payton opening his tool set.. 

This is the awesome blanket Chad got made for me! 

And Yes I cried when I opened it..

After opening gifts at my parents we headed over to my aunt's to

eat Christmas dinner and open more gifts..

And yes all of that behind me is Payton's presents. Man it's nice to be a kid..

Luckily at Vidor Elementary they had santa pictures for all of the

kids and Grandma got us up there to sneak one in! It was well worth paying 5 dollars

instead of 40 at the mall considering I knew Payton would

flip out and not want Santa to touch him.

We had Payton's post-check up yesterday from his surgery. 

He loves the teddy bears the Dr keeps in his office.

Dr said Everything looks good we just have to watch him to make sure

the testicle stays down. I sure pray this lil guy doesn't have to have surgery again!!

 Today was the first day we've actually been able to be home with out any errands to run, so we decided to play with everything we go for Christmas. Payton had gotten some finger paint and loved playing with that.

Then when he started getting bored I added some old spaghetti

noodles for him to play with and this was his masterpiece.

I think the biggest hit was this basket ball set my parents got Payton.

(Even though it should have had Chad's name written on it)

They have so much fun playing with this. We can already tell Payton will be

a star basketball player!

Payton's Surgery

      Things have been pretty quiet around the Sims house. I believe my last post was Thanksgiving. Since then, the only thing that has happened is Chad and I finished this semester of school and Payton has had surgery. Chad did very well in all of his classes and only has two more semesters until he graduates! He is getting very excited. In the meantime, He is studying for his PCAT to get into Pharmacy school. I on the other hand, still have forever! But with raising a baby (and a husband lol) I think I'm doing just fine. Also, on the same day Chad takes his PCAT, I will be taking my pharmacy technicians test to become a registered pharmacy tech. I am hoping to get hired on at a local pharmacy in January to make some extra money. I really miss working at the pharmacy.
        On a different note, Payton had surgery last friday (Dec 14th). He had to be recircumcised and have one of his testicles dropped. I feel like he can never catch a break.. He has been in the hospital twice with pneumonia and once with a sinus block. And now after only getting out of the hospital about three weeks ago he had to go in for surgery. But believe it or not even after all of that, he is such a trooper. Luckily, this was just a day surgery. We went in around 6 am and they started the surgery at 9. It was the hardest thing to let the nurses take him from me with him screaming. The doctors were not really worried about the surgery itself but with Payton being born with Apnea they had to watch him being under anesthesia. Luckily everything went fine and he was rolled back to us about 11:30 and we were sent home. Day one was rough. He slept all day from the time he got out of surgery until 6 am the next morning. (Only waking up for 3-5 minute intervals of screaming bloody murder and falling back asleep) The anesthesia seemed to have a lasting effect on him. It wasn't until Saturday morning that it really seemed to be out of his body. From Saturday until today it has still been very rough. He has been very clingy and only wanted Mommy. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing.. You can tell the poor little guy is in so much pain. He has two scars and the one on his belly is a pretty good size. I would post a picture but he won't bring his legs out of the fetal position. Other than that he is doing great. I mean you can tell he's in pain but he will play and watch movies for most of the day.
        On a more positive note because of his scars and pain he hasn't really been able to crawl much so he has started walking!! YEAH!! It only took us 14 months but hey better late than never! About two days ago he learned how to use the push toys and yesterday he actually started walking from one place to another.. Chad and I are so excited. We feel like we have been working with him SO much lately.

Here are few pictures to document lil man's Surgery..

This is as soon as he got out.

This is Saturday morning. He pretty much ate all day considering

 he went over 24 hrs without food..

Sunday Sitting on my mom's lap watching Mickey

Mouse. As you can tell he has been very chill..

 And this is a picture Chad took today of him playing outside..

He is such a cutie!

        Like I said though nothing really new is going on here. Grandpa and Grandma Sims just left for Arkansas and Mom and Dad Sims leave Thursday for Ashleigh's so we will probably spent Christmas with my family. Can you believe Christmas is only 6 days away??!! Holy Cow! I feel like this year has just flown by.
        I probably won't post from now until Christmas so we hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Happy late thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, we sure did! Even though Payton had a rough day we seemed to manage and get everyone fed and happy. Lol. We started the day by going to my grandma's and eating dinner with my family. We had a great meal but seemed to loose track of time and the food wasn't quiet ready until about 1 or so. so by that time Payton was past hungry and moved on to tired. After getting Payton to nap and feed we tried to take a few family photos to remember the holidays.

 He is getting so good at walking now! We are up to5-6 steps(:

Yes I know the drool is horrible! He is soaking right through the bibs..

Grandma gave us this awesome activity to work on that she got from the school. It's something I remember doing as a kid. It was just a brown paper bag cut into a vest, I knew Payton wouldn't be able to wear it but I figured he would have fun painting it.. and boy did he!

We had so much fun this past weekend. Chad got to take off the three days of studying and we cherished that so much! Payton loves getting quality Daddy time.. I don't mind it either(: I just can't believe how big my little boy is getting to be either. He is so close to walking and is now answering everything you say with a uh huh or a no head shake lol.

On another note I am so proud of myself for getting all my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday! Yes it was a long night but so worth all the money I saved(: Now if we could get through these two weeks of finals we will be doing GREAT!

Nothing New Here.

  I think it has been almost a month since my last post. That's sad, but honestly nothing new has really happened (at least nothing good) Payton went back into the hospital on Saturday. He has had a cold and bad cough for a few weeks now but I figured it was the weather change and was justing giving him OTC medications. Well Friday morning he developed a horrible rash on his face and it started to swell. I gave him some benadryl after calling the pedi who was out of town but all it did was bring the swelling down. This rash kind of worried me but I figured it was something he had eaten (but I couldn't figure out what) Saturday he woke up and during breakfast the rash got worse again and he started vomiting horribly. I then decided it was time to take him to the ER. The ER ran all kind of X-rays and test on him and started to get concerned on why he can't seem to stay healthy. They ended up keeping us from Sat until Monday to monitor him and run more tests. They said the rash was viral and that all of his sinus's were blocked up. He is probably going to be a sensitive kid with higher allergy problems than most. But there is something that has been causing his sinus's to flair up causing him to get so sick. They put him on antibiotics and said to cut out all straight dairy to see if thats whats causing it, and to give him only warm food and drinks (room temp). Chad and I also decided to go ahead and take him out of daycare due to all the sickness running through there daily. Obviously Payton's immune system can't take it. It has been a long few days and I'm extremely exhausted. I really want to know what needs to be done to keep him healthy:( 

  Anyways, Thats the most exciting thing that has happened in the past month. Oh and Payton finally has his surgery scheduled for next month! I am SO nervous about him being put under but they say he should only be out about 3 hours. Here are a few cute photos I couldn't resist putting up!(:

 Payton loves making a mess after Mommy cleans!

At the doctor getting evaluated for our surgery!

And YAAYY I got my tree up!! I love it. It's our first year to have a full tree! I know the ornaments kinda stink right now but we had to buy all new ones that were safe for Payton if he pulled them off so we are just buying a few at a time. ( Man those things are expensive)

One Whole Year..

Well the time has come and gone and my Little man is a whole year old. We had so much fun planning the party and getting him all ready and it seemed to fly by way to fast. I will post pictures of the party as promised but first I want to dedicate a little time talking about how much my guy has changed in the past year.
At a year old Payton can now:
     - Stand unassisted for longer than a minute.
     - crawl everywhere 90 to nothing
     - get only one bottle a day (for bedtime)
     - play consistently on his own for hours at a time!
     - pick up most foods and feed himself
     - say full words such as mom, dad, no, good, go, dog, down, and ball

His favorite things to do now are:
    - go for rides in the wagon
    - play with bouncy balls
    - watch wow wow wubbzy
    - play chase with Meme and Pappy's puppy.
    - take baths
    - play with kitties

Our one year stats:
    - Weight: 24.15lbs (still trying to gain back weight from hospital)
    - Height: 31 1/2"
    - not sure about the head circumference but in the 90-100% for them all
    - shoe size: 6
    - Clothes size: 18-24 mo

I can't believe how fast this time has went by and how much he has developed with in such a short time frame. It seems as if it was only yesterday I was holding him in my arms in the hospital. We had some rough moments getting this far but I know neither Chad and I would change it for the world.

Here are some photos from the big day!

First Chad took Payton to the park here in town. He decided that every morning on his birthday him and Payton will go. Chad doesn't get much time with Payton because of work and school, I think it's so sweet that at least once a year they will get their full daddy/Payton time. Chad is such a good dad. Payton was such a momma's boy in the beginning but now that he plays more him and Chad are really starting to bond more.

This is the photo line I made. Don't pay attention to the rest of the room this was before any other decor was done..

 Here is the outside. Dad and Chad did an AMAZING job on the front! Chads fingers actually started bleeding from tieing so many balloons.. just hang on you'll see what I mean haha...

 Here is the walkway!

the cake table

The food table (I don't think this was taken after all the food was out)

 Kool-aid.. oh and a special thanks to my SIL for doing Mr. Lorax over there. There is no way I would have been able to make that.

 Lunch time

 He got sooo many presents!

Payton of course did not like sharing his toys with his cousin! lol

 about to cut cake

 Just to excited!

About to sing Happy Birthday

 I was so impressed Payton actually touched his cake. Trust me if you knew my child you would know he does NOT like to get messy.. He actually had a blast playing in this!

 I decided to do something a little different. Most people get cards on their birthday and they just get thrown away after the party. I decided to get everyone to bring a book instead of a card. This way they could sign their book and Payton could keep them to read later on. Little did I know how many books I would accumulate.. (over 50!)

 Playing outside

Meme

Just talking to Uncle Jordan

Playing with our new baseball set with Papa and Uncle Jordan

 And the last family shot of the evening..

Hope you enjoyed. Sorry, I warned you there would be a ton of pics (This is actually nothing there is actually 500 total!) Anyways, It has been an amazing year and I can't wait to see what comes next!