ABC's

Max is learning his ABC's and their sounds. When saying his ABC's he tends to forget "a few" here and there as you will see in the video. Batman (as he likes to be referred to these days) is really good at their sounds. If you say a letter he is really good about knowing what sound it makes.
Despite his lack of letters in his rendition of the ABC's we are proud of him and think he is one smart (and cute) cookie.
As you watch this please take note of the ending of his ABC's. I have not confirmed this with her, but I am thinking that Grandma Chebs just may have something to do with it.

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Home Improvement

We are taking baby steps here. There are so many things that we want to do with the house. Luckily when we moved in the wood floors and the back yard were already done for us.
Items that we have done since we moved in are replace the kitchen counters, restained the kitchen cabinets, put in a new back splash and sink and wired the cabinets for under mount lighting (which we have yet to purchase). We also put fresh paint in every room. We have bought new living room furniture (still awaiting 2 pieces of that) and we have bought a dining table and chairs. These should be in toward the end of this month.
Our list of things we still want to do is still long. Some of those things are, replace the wood spindles on the stairs with iron, redo the fireplace and wall as well as the bar area in the kitchen (we are thinking stack stone), replace the carpet upstairs and remodel the master bath.
One of the things that we are doing as well is replacing the lighting throughout the house. All the lighting that is currently in the house with the exception of the 1/2 bath is standard builders lighting. Our first lighting swap out was our entry way light. We purchased in on Monday and just had it installed yesterday. I think it turned out pretty nice.
We just have to take baby steps and eventually it will be just how we want it. By the time we are done maybe I will have Matt convinced that we need a pool too.

Not the best picture of the light itself but I thought it was kid of cool

I have to point something out in this final picture. You see Max up there dangling something? That is a stretchy lizard. The second say we were in this house that lizard got thrown up in the air and landed on the very top Window ledge of our entry way. No ladder in the Payne house could reach it. So yesterday while the electricians were here I pointed out the lizard (and a dart that was up there too) and asked if they would be willing to use their amazing ladder (seriously that thing was awesome!) to get it down for me. They were very kind and obliged my request. Now all that remains up there is dust. I just didn't feel right asking if they would dust it for me too.

Christmas!

I am playing catch up here. Please don't judge me and my blogging abilities. Christmas Eve the girls were in the little program at mom's church. Both were little angels. I asked Calyn what she was going to tell her teacher she did over her long break. She said, "I am going to tell her I got to go on stage!" This child was born to be on stage! I must say they did a fabulous job and had to be two of the cutest angels ever! See for yourself.
 

The girls

 The silly angel

 The sweet angel

 Don't you just love this?

 Ah! Even better. These girls are just too cute!

 Priceless!

 Another cute one

 After church we headed to Merrick and Jimmy's for steak and the fixings. The kids were so cute and so excited about the arrival of Santa. It was so fun to see the magic and the excitement in the kids eyes this year. The wonder and magic of Christmas was there and it was awesome!

Two little stinkers

 Grandma Ois Grandma Chebs and Grandma Connie

 Three little stinkers

 Grandma Ois, Reese, Grandma Chebs

 Three of the most beautiful people EVER!

 Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Robert

 Love this picture of the girls

 The girls with Aunt Lindsay

 

 Robert and the ladies

Corry throwing out the reindeer food

After putting out the reindeer food we headed home and got ready for the big guy at our house. The kids went to bed really easy on Christmas Eve. If only it were that easy every night.

I am sorry to say that I only got pictures of the kids Christmas morning. I did not get any from the afternoon on. I was a failure and forgot to take my camera to mom and dad's house for Christmas. Here are the pictures that I do have from that morning.

Calyn's loot from Santa

 Max's loot from Santa

 The kids looking at their stuff and a very old Cozmo

 Calyn opening up her golf clubs

 Max tearing into his clubs

 When they pulled this out they said....what is it? It was the Xbox Kinect that Matt won at my Christmas party.  I have to say it has been a big hit. They have really enjoyed it.

 Calyn playing with her new American Girl doll

 Max playing with his Batman characters.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Final Days of Cecil

Cecil was busy in his final days. The kids really enjoyed him this year and were very excited to see where he was going to end up the next morning. As usual he didn't disappoint them. Here were his final hiding places. There was one day that Cecil did not get his picture made. He was hiding on Calyn's dresser in her room. I guess he was afraid the flash from the Camera might wake her up.

Doing some acrobatics from the bathroom chandelier

 Hanging with his old pal Santa

 This one he got tangled in Santa's beard. Calyn was pretty sure that the reason he was in Santa's beard was because he heard her coming down the stairs and he hadn't hid yet. Her theory was that he got scared and just jumped into his beard to hide.

 What could they all be looking at?

Cecil, Woody and Buzz took Max's plane for a little flight test. Max LOVED this one!

 

And finally Christmas Eve Cecil sat by Santa's plate of cookies and waited for the big guy to show up.