Lily and Peyton

Over the last couple of months, Lily has really grown close to her friend, Peyton, who is about 6 weeks younger than her. Peyton's dad, Chris, and Ryan used to work together at Opteum, but both left for other jobs. Chris has recently enlisted in the Army and for a couple of months before he left for training, he stayed home with Peyton more. So, on most Tuesdays when Ryan is typically home with our girls, Chris and Peyton would come over to play. His wife, Hannah, and I enjoy spending time together too, but we don't get the chance to get together as much as Ryan and Chris.

On Christmas morning, when Lily opened her "glass slippers and tee-taras" set, one of the first things she said was "I can't wait to share these with Peyton!" She and Peyton share a love for all things princess related. When Chris and Peyton came over on the 26th, they immediately each put on a princess dress and a pair of glass slippers as you can see from the picture below. They had a ball playing games, grocery shopping and building a house together; they were running around, talking, laughing and having so much fun together. It's lots of fun for Ryan and me to watch them!

We were going to meet Chris and Peyton at the playground yesterday (see the previous post), and when we told Lily, she got so excited. She said multiple times, "Peyton is a friend, and I am a friend! We're both friends!"

Chris is leaving on Saturday and will be gone for 6 months in Army training, so we won't see him for awhile. While we wish him all the best while he's at training, I hope we will be able to see Peyton and Hannah a lot while he is gone, so we can keep Lily and Peyton's friendship going. They are such sweet friends!