The Move...The House...The Holidays!!!

Ok heres the quick run down. We spent Thanksgiving with some wonderful, we ate way to much, we laughed we played outside, we slept, we ate some more and then had dessert! It really was a great Turkey Day and we are blessed to have such great friends. 

Then five days later we moved! We filled up our giant Uhaul 2 times. Luckily we had lots of help from our wonderful ward. It didnt take long to pack it all up and unload it but it sure is taking a while to put it all away and organzie. But I am having doing it and also getting ready for CHRISTMAS! Can't believe it is just around the corner. Guess I better get back to work...More pics to come...

The family car finally kicked the bucket last week. On Monday night after we went Trick or Treating and got all our treats....we also got our trick! When we went to leave Glade started up the car and it made all these funny noises and then just wouldnt start anymore. :(  The next day Glade and I went van shopping. I always said I would never drive a van but WOW, its so comfy and roomy and it has MAGIC DOORS! I push a button and the doors open themselves and the kiddos climb in the car and into their car seats. I don't have to open anybodys door or lift them up, just walk around and buckle up the baby and push another button and doors close. We love our family ride but I gotta say I was a little sad to say goodbye to the Grand AM......

I am not a sentimental person but I am pretty sad to say goodbye to my Winkie Blinkie. Glade purchased Goldie the GrandAM AKA Winkie Blinkie a couple of months before we got engaged so she has been our Family car since the beginning. We brought both our babies home from the hospital in her and have driven to many family events in her.

Even though she only had one good eye (side mirror) and the blinker randomly turned on at any point during your drive, (thus the name Winkie Blinkie), those are just some of the qualities I will miss about her. I will also miss the radio blasting itself at different volumes and on random stations whenever you start her up. The button to shifter would fall off whenever you turned a corner or went over a bump so you had to keep one hand on it at all times. I will miss the passenger side window falling down every now and then and the black duct tape we finally had to use to keep it up, and the dome light that never worked right. I Love how she "purred" even after the ignition had been turned off and the key taken out. She had these and many more crazy quirks. Just like our quirky family… Gonna miss that stupid car...

Bum Pa Da Dummmm....The Costumes!

I heart Halloween and dressing up! McCoy usually don's 3-4 different costumes but this year he was dead set on only being one thing....MC Hammer! Yup that's right. Thanks to daddy and YouTube, McCoy has discovered the joys of Hammer Time and would watch the music video over and over and insisted that I make him some hammer pants.

This is seriously why I wanted to learn to sew. My mom always made our Halloween costumes growing up and I wasn't to imaginative but my younger brothers would have her come up some doosies and she always came through. I love being able to do that for my boy...because well really...where would I find an MC hammer costume now days?

So anywho, I youtubed how to make hammer pants, found some stretchy gold fabric and got to work. I should have checked the fabric out better because this one would split seams and got wore out fast but it worked for the few uses it got. Although now he wants to wear them around everyday LOL. And I just kind of winged the  jacket. It's a silk pajama top that I cropped down. I had to take the sleeves off and take in the sides, crop of the bottom and then put the sleeves back on and sew on the gold cuffs.  He wanted to comb his hair like hammer too but we had to sit him down and explain that his hair would NEVER look square LOL.

And Bentley was "Pretty as a Peacock"  I put her costume together with a dress I found on clearance that was suppose to be a Mermaid fairy, and then I bought wings and a tiara at the dollar store and glued on feathers added her leggings and she became a peacock. My little Peacock Princess walked around night with candy in her mouth. She hearts Halloween now too. :)

And Glade and I even got into the spirit. He dressed up as a Rockstar and I was his groupie. It's fun to be a kid. :) Can't wait to see what my kiddos come up with next year.

It's Fall Ya'll

McCoy and his buddy Layla dressed as Scarecrows for their Fall on the Farm play their class put on.

Here's my little Punkin's at the St. Peters Pumpkin Patch

And this is Bentley dressed up as a Skeleton with some of her friends from her little playgroup.

 This is the first year we have carved pumpkins....and it will probably be the last! What a stinky squishy mess and it didn't help that I picked some bad pumpkins and forgot that they don't really last long in this Florida heat. We carved them a five days before Halloween and by Sunday night they were mush! We had to scrap them off the steps! The kiddos loved them though....and for those cute faces I would do it again I suppose....maybe....

Another Pumpkin patch...we just can't get enough Halloween! And no that is not SNOW....just white tarp, but we pretended it was LOL.

My "Save Me" Dollar and other life lessons my grandpa taught me...

This is my emergency Dollar also known as my "Save Me" me dollar because I wrote save me all over it so I would remember to save and not spend it.  I came across it when I was packing things up and just thought I should jot down the reasoning behind its existence...

Back when I was in high school my Fafa (Grandpa) sat me down and told me that I should always carry an extra dollar in my wallet for an emergency. He then told me that ever since he was young he had always carried an extra dollar bill in his wallet in case he needed gas $ or needed to make a phone call. At the time I thought this was so silly because really what can you do with a dollar?  Everybody carried cell phones and gas was practically a dollar a gallon anyway!  (remember this was back when I was in high school).  I headed his advice anyway more because it made me laugh every time I looked at that single dollar bill, but as the years went on it seemed that the dollar would always somehow fall out of my wallet or make itself known at exactly the moments when I needed to be reminded about my savings.

I know I will never spend this particular dollar bill. I keep it hanging on bulletin board so I can see it often, especially when I am window shopping via the lovely Internet and want to buy something I glance up at my dollar and think twice about my wants and needs.

My grandpa taught me many life lessons and he had his own funny quirky way of teaching me. He had so many "Fafa-isms" he put his own spin on naming things and always made us grand kids laugh. I'm so thankful for the time he spent with me when I was younger and the things that he taught me.

We have a closing date!!!!!

Our new home is almost done and we are getting so excited and can't wait to move in! Our closing date is November 30! We have made a tradition of going every Friday since they broke ground to document the progress. The Friday Family viewing rule also keeps me from going over to the building site every day since its right around the corner. It has been so fun to watch our home being built and the kids love to go run around there. I hope they will already be comfortable with the home when we move in. McCoy was always a baby when we moved before so the home we are in now is the only home he remembers and this is the only home Bentley has ever known so I am excited but nervous for them also.   If anybody has any great transition advice for moving young kids please share.

Here are a couple of progress pictures....

Meeting thew newest little Idaho Tator Tot

We left on a Saturday morning bright and early, kissed daddy and bubba goodbye and jumped on our flight to start our journey to Idaho. I was nervous about how the princess would do on the flight but she handled it like a champ. She is such a wiggler and squirmer that I was prepared for the worst since we would be sharing a seat but thanks to a little innovative toy ideas and Dora on the I-Phone, she flew like a pro.

I packed a bunch of Dollar Store animals, crayons, play dough, Lego's and books for those long plane and car rides. But the best thing I packed was a cookie sheet! The cookie sheet served as our personal tray and to keep her toys and crayons from falling on the floor, and then we also didn't need to use the plane tray. You know the one attached to the seat in front of you. I hate when I have a kid behind me who is always messing with the tray and pulling on it or pushing on it. I actually had a flight attendant ask me if she could blog about the cookie sheet LOL. She said in all her years of being a stewardess that she had never seen that. I wish I had done this when McCoy was younger too. I totally would have painted it like a race track or something so he would have had something to drive his toy cars on instead of the people sitting next to us.

We were greeted in Utah by Grandma and Grandpa Peterson who escorted us to one of my wonderful sister in-laws houses so we could rest a bit before heading to a family get together. It must be said that as far as in-laws go, I have the BEST! It was so nice to see everybody and see the kids. Even though we were just there in January they all have seem to grow soo sooo much. It amazes me every time I see them. I love hearing their stories and about how they are all doing in school and sports. We really have a wonderful and talented bunch of Peterson kiddos!

Ok, about the feet in the grass in picture...I find it funny who most people wanna walk barefoot in the sand....I just wanna run barefoot through Idaho grass! Florida's got some nasty grass going on in most areas so whenever I get a chance when I'm back in Idaho i kick off my shoes just to feel the cool soft grass on my feet! :)

We spent the night in Utah and then it was off to Idaho the next morning, I was so eager to hold my new niece I could hardly stand it. The greatest feeling is when you have these really high expectations of how something is going to go and then the real thing is even GREATER!

From the moment heard my baby brother was going to have a baby I was so thrilled and couldn't wait for her to be born and then when I saw her picture for the first time I cried because she was just so beautiful and because I couldn't even explain it but I loved her so so much even though I had never met her. But finally getting to hold her and hear her coo and even cry...ah, my heart gets all mushy just thinking about her. I am so excited to be her Auntie and I hope she will always know that even though I am far away, I love her so much. It's still surreal to me that my baby brother has a baby of his own now. I love my bro so much and am so excited for him to start this new chapter in his life.

Bentley and I had so much fun during our trip just playing with the baby and visiting with everybody we could. As usual the time flew by and we didn't get to see everybody that we wanted, there is just never enough time to see em all. :(  But we had an absolutely wonderful time with those we did see. I'm so grateful for all my family. I love you all mucho mucho!

Fairy tale come true! Im going to see the Princess!

Im finally on my way to Idaho to go an meet my new niece, Cinderella Torrez! My baby bro and his beautiful wife Tiffini had a baby girl in July and I am so excited to finally get to meet her! I am super excited that she also gets to be my excuse to go and see my family and friends too and just have a good ol Burley Idaho experience. :)

Baby Cinderella your Auntie is Coming!!!!!

Parrot Jungle Island

 Had a  blast with the kiddos today at Parrot Jungle Island. It's like an interactive zoo. Glade, McCoy and I have been before but this was boo boos first time and she loved it! She really loves animals.She wanted to hold and touch and pet everything. Many of the animals she did have an opportunity to touch so that was nice. She was never afraid at all. Mommy got a bit nervous though.

This is an actual Liger. The biggest in captivity they say. You can't really tell from this pictures but he was HUGE!  Bentley kept growling at him trying to get him to grow back I guess then she finally put her finger to her lips and shushed us...she wanted us to know  this is his napping time LOL.