Prayers!

As you all know teaching a 2 year old how to pray can be a ChAllEnGinG at times. Every night we kneel down w/ Payton and try to explain that we need to show Heavenly Father we love him by folding our arms, closing our eyes and kneeling down. I feel like I haven't taught him anything because everynight it is the same thing... "Payton we are saying prayer's we need to listen and be reverent." Ya'll know what I am talking about RiGhT?
Well tonight the missionaries stoped by for a bit and before they left they asked if we could say a prayer. Sure no big deal! Payton quickly folds his arms and closes his eyes (it actually looks more like he is squinting, he has watched Mike and I during prayer's I guess). He is sitting on his bike very reverently when Xoie comes up to his bike and start's climbing up. All of a sudden Mike and I hear "Xoie, no Shhh, say prayer's. Talk to Heavenly Father. UHH!" We heard it over and over during the prayer and couldn't stop laughing. (It was a quiet laugh)
I was VeRY PlEAseD to know that I have taught him something, It also was very cute and rewarding to see such a little man try to teach his sister something about Heavenly Father.

The new hang out!

If all of a sudden I can't see Xoie in the family room w/ Payton and I, I know exactly where she is. For some reason she has found this spot to be her FaVorITe place in the whole house. The little area between the stairs and the vent. She will crawl over to the stairs, pull herself up and turn and sit just as you see her in the pictures. She will wait for you to peak your head around the corner and then start laughing. I don't understand why this is so fun to her, but I love that it keeps her EntERtaiNEd and it keeps us LaUGhinG.

She will sit infront of the vent and let the air blow her hair EVeRYwhERe! Once the air turns off, she moves on exploring something new.

Our little girl, all grown up!

After Xoie mastered the whole crawling thing earlier this week she decided it was time to get up on her feet! She loves crawling up to Mike, myself, the stairs, or as you can see the couch and pull herself up into standing position. She then proceedes to babble as though she is telling you the story of how she got into the position she is in. She is so excited to be able to get around and explore new things.

Here she is trying to figure out how she is going to get onto her feet w/out falling over.

Right as I went to take the picture of her standing, she turned her head to look at me and fell over, she isn't the most stable on her feet yet. So I guess this is the closest you get for now.

Hey Dad, do you recognize Xoie's face? Mike keeps telling me that she get's her looks from me, but I don't believe it. I guess ya'll will be the judge of that.

Here she is up on all four. The army crawl is slowly going away. We are sooo excited!

She is moving on all four and staying up as she goes. She does still get lazy and goes to the army crawl, but she is learning.

Xoie thought Payton was coming to get her off the bike and this was the face she gave him to get him away from her. Her personality is getting more fun everyday!

Xoie is on Payton's bike and she is having the time of her life.

Payton thought it was pretty cool to trade toys w/ Xoie for a while. When he figured out that he was stuck, he didn't like it so much.

Our 50 degree weather week!

This past week has been a lot of fun for us. The weather was amazingly warm and we were able to go outside and play FinAllY! On Tuesday we went to the park w/ Isaac, Lia, and Cybill. It was tonz of fun. Payton climed up the stairs, went through the tunnel and down the slide by himself for the first time. He even fell on the cement and got his first offical scrap on the knee that he remembers!
On Wednesday we went to the Zoo w/ Megan, Jane, and Matt. All day the only thing Payton could say was "Animals today?" He was pretty excited. As we were walking around the Zoo there would be golf cart type cars driving around to take care of the Zoo. Everytime one would drive by Payton ran over and clung onto my leg. Most of the time I would have to pick him up and carry him for a while so he could get over the scare of cars coming by. Hey, at least I got my work out in right? We made it to the Elephant house and Payton loved it. He enjoyed watching them eat, drink and move. After that we went into the Monkey house. It was pretty stinky in there. Payton had a hard time in there as well. He has the Hansen nose. He gags when he smells Xoie's dirty diapers so you could only imagine what happened in the Monkey house w/ him. His words went something like "Mom Monkey stink" followed by him gagging. All I could do was laugh because honestly I wanted to gag myself. All in all it was a very fun day at the zoo and an awesome week. We keep hearing that this weather it odd for this time of the year, but we don't mind the 50 degree weather everyday for a week.