Weekend Visitors

Ben's dad wanted to meet Payton, so this past weekend we had Dan and Kathy here for a short visit. I hope they will come visit us more often since things seem to get done when they are here (this time Ben and Dan fixed a pipe in the front yard, and even got the grill cleaned so it could be used for Sunday dinner. I'm sure they did more too). We had fun with them while they were here. Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

Dan and Payton

Of course there was plenty of swimming this weekend. Baylee gets in the pool any chance she gets.

Baylee still can't get enough of Payton. She's always wanting to hold him.

Kathy and Payton. We finally got a picture of them together!

Baylee and Payton laying together on the couch. Payton seems to like Baylee almost as much as she likes him.

Dan with both the kids.

We can't wait to see Dan and Kathy and even more family in a little over a week!

My Hero!

We had a few visitors when Payton was born. Ben's brother, Ryan, brought our niece Shelby out the day after we got home from the hospital (they came Friday). He stayed until Sunday night. Ben's mom came out that Saturday, and her and Shelby left this past Sunday. Let me just say that Kathy was my hero when she was here, and it was nice having her and Shelby here to help me out.  Not only did they help out with Baylee, but Kathy made sure our house got unpacked (most of it, or at least the boxes in the right rooms), plus she finished painting Payton's room and vacuumed and steam cleaned our carpets for us.  She also made sure we had dinner every night. Her and Shelby took Baylee to the park one day, and even walked to the store a couple of time in our hot weather.  Kathy spoiled us a lot while she was here, and it was so nice having them.  I just hope they weren't too bored!   

Here's Ryan with Payton.  Ryan also helped Ben get our t.v. hung on the wall before he left.  Thanks, Ryan!   

Shelby and Baylee got some good use out of the pool for the week.  It was nice having Shelby and Kathy also so they could take Baylee swimming.

Baylee still loves her baby brother and wants to hold him and kiss him all the time.  Ben now has her saying that she wants a baby sister next and that I need to get on it.  Sorry, I don't think there's one coming in the near future, Baylee!

We made it out of the house for a little bit a couple times while Kathy and Shelby were here.  Payton's first outing was the movies.  We all went and saw Up in 3D.  He did really well since he slept through it all.  Baylee, however, had a harder time sitting through it.  I think it was the two girls that kept going up and down the stairs next to us the whole movie.  

We also made it out to dinner.  Here's our first picture as a family (not the greatest one-I don't know what's going on with my facial expression) at Cheesecake Factory.

Saturday Kathy treated us to Sleeping Beauty at Hale Theatre.  Baylee was so excited to see it, and was really into it the whole time, even though it wasn't the Disney version she knows.  She was especially excited to meet Sleeping Beauty at the end and get her autograph and a picture.  Her cute dress is more of Kathy spoiling us.

We had a fun time with everyone and are excited to have Kathy back, this time with Dan, Friday!  Ben's dad couldn't wait until we go out there next month to meet Payton, so we get to have them at our house for the weekend!

Last night Payton rolled from back to stomach!  I couldn't believe it.  It probably helped that he was on the couch though.  He was getting a little upset because he was hungry, and just rolled on over!

Thank you Kathy for spoiling us!    

More Payton Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of Payton we've taken over the first few days of his life:

Baylee and Payton at the hospital:

Getting ready to leave the hospital:

Baylee and Payton both passed out:

Payton sleeping in a basket:

We'll do a better update in a few days.

Payton Bentley Hall

Hello everybody. Payton was born today at 10:57 A.M. He is 6lbs 12oz and I think 21 inches. He looks bigger than I remember Baylee being but he is 3oz lighter. There was a little bit of a scare since he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck but you might have never been able to tell because we have a wonderful doctor and some great nurses. They took care of it real quick. He is good and healthy. Brittany is doing really well. She is deservedly tired. But doing well. We got to the hospital at 7:30 a.m., she was probably induced by 8:00 A.M. and Payton was out at 10:57 A.M. It was very quick. Brittany did an awesome job today. Baylee was very excited to hold Payton today and was even crying tonight because she wanted to go see Brittany and Payton. Bellow are some pictures. We will definitely be posting more:

Our House/Memorial Day

I finally found a picture of our house. I think it's from the Inspection report, so it has the previous owners cars in it, but hey, you get the idea, right? So, here it is-our very own house!
We still haven't gotten very much done. Ben got the kitchen unpacked last week, but everything is still pretty much crammed into our living room, like this:Ok, I think it might be minus a couple more boxes right now. But, pretty much the same. It's hard when I've been instructed not to do anything and Ben is busy with work and side work (plus we have to play a little, right?). We will get there though. We had someone come start on the painting upstairs, so once that's done it will also be easier to get more unpacked. Hopefully it will get done soon.....

One of the first things on Ben's agenda when we moved in was to get in the pool. Him and Baylee have been swimming just about every day. Baylee wakes up in the morning and begs to go. This is the first testing out of the pool by Baylee and Ben:

We are so excited to have a house that we can entertain in, so for Memorial Day we had my family come over (we know they won't mind our moving mess). We hung out and also played the Wii while Ben cooked his yummy turkey burgers for dinner (we still haven't tried out the grill though since he didn't want to clean it off). Baylee got her very own Disney Princess Wii game that we had to play before anyone came over. Look at that concentration we have going on:
I have to add in one of the funny things Baylee said last night. My brother was playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Baylee and after one game she said to him "Scotty, you have trash and I just kicked it!" It was pretty funny.

After eating a yummy dinner, it was time for the pool. It looked pretty calm when I first walked out....

...but not really!

The guys (and Baylee) were busy trying to get all the water out of the pool? Or at least that's what it seemed like.

Eventually the tidal waves stopped, and my sister and I got in too. We had a fun time having people use our pool with us!

I was so excited for dessert. After swimming we used our firepit and had smores! Baylee kept calling it a campout. Here's my dad, Annie, and Scott roasting their marshmellows:
Ben helping Baylee with hers:

They were pretty yummy! We had caramel vanilla marshmellows. Baylee loved them.

And of course, here's me and Baylee. The firepit is kinda low for me to be bending down to roast marshmellows. It was a little bit of a challenge for me. Baylee loved watching the fire.

My dad, Annie, and Scott (my mom seemed to be missing for all the picture taking):
We had such a fun Memorial Day and can't wait to have people over again!

We're In!

I just thought I would do a little update.  We made it into our new house!  Since our baby is already trying to make his way out, I wasn't allowed to help at all (along with the fact that I also couldn't do any heavy lifting).  I was told I could sit on the couch and supervise, but instead Baylee and I just hung out at my parents house (it kept Baylee out of the way) while Ben had a lot of help from family members getting everything moved over.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped!  We are so lucky to have family here to help!  Ben got the kitchen unpacked, but has been so tired and busy with other things that everything else is still piled mostly in our living room.  So, sorry for no pictures, but I don't know where any of our batteries are.  Ben and Baylee have been taking advantage of having a pool.  I think they've both basically been swimming everyday since we've moved in.  Baylee and I went in the other day, and last night we had our first family swim.  We are looking forward to getting the rooms upstairs painted so we can get everything organized and unpacked soon!  It will be nice to have all of our stuff unpacked!  We love our new house!  I will post some pictures once I find some batteries!  

Celebrations

We had quite the busy weekend, full of a lot of celebrating!  Thursday was Ben's birthday.  Unfortunately, I had a doctor's appointment that Ben had to leave work a little early for, and then Ben and Baylee had gymnastics that night.  Luckily my appointment was fast, so we were able to come home in between to let Ben open some presents.  Baylee was so excited for Ben's birthday, and Ben was a good sport to let her open up all of his presents.  She was really excited for the toys we got him for our new pool. 

For Ben's final present, Baylee and I had set up a scavenger hunt (they call it Blue's Clues). Baylee was so excited for this present. It had been quite a hunt for us to find the present for Ben since I wasn't smart enough to pick it up when I first saw it (it was on a good sale-thanks dad for helping me!).  When Ben had gotten home from work, the first thing she told him was that his present was upstairs (which is where it was hidden).  She helped Ben with all the clues, and even though I had a talk with her about not telling daddy what his present was, she slipped and told when we headed upstairs for those clues.

Ben finally found the hiding spot!  And the big present was.......

Guitar Hero!!!!  I think Baylee was more excited for it than Ben was.  But hey, it has two guitars so she can "play along".  Or so she thinks.....

Ben surprised Baylee and I with presents as well!  Baylee has been asking for Hungry, Hungry Hippos for awhile.  She was so excited to see that daddy had gotten it for her!

She also loved these goodies that Grandma and Grandpa Hall had sent daddy for his birthday.

After gymnastics we hit Joe's Farm grill for dinner.  Ben got to eat free for his birthday, and had already hit up one of their other restaurants, Liberty Market, for a free breakfast.  We didn't get to cake and ice cream since Baylee had fallen asleep in the car and Ben was too full from dinner.

Friday night we went over to my parents to celebrate Ben's birthday with them.  Baylee was really sad when I told her we weren't doing a party for Ben, so this worked out well for a party.  We had pizza and played games and hung out.  We brought over the cake Baylee had helped me make and decorate.  It looked lovely with Baylee's wonderful icing drawings.  

Saturday Ben and I went and got a couples massage while my parents watched Baylee.  Afterwards we ran our errands, then headed back over to my parents in time to see my sister before she left for Prom.  Then we ditched Baylee again so we could have a bday dinner with just Ben and myself.  We didn't know we would be surrounded by Chandler high schoolers who also had Prom that night.  We got a little table next to a big group of them at Cheesecake Factory, but it was still a nice break from Baylee, which was what Ben wanted for his birthday.  

Sunday my back and neck were sore from my massage, and my body just felt all off, so I spent most of the day in bed.  Ben made crepes for us, and later we headed over to my grandparents for Mother's Day dinner.  We had a fun time with family there.  We always do!

Now this week we are busy trying to get our new house ready for us to move into.  It's been quite the busy, stressful week, and we still have half of it left!