There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home

Back at Last....and so happy to be home! We had a good time on our Christmas Vacation, but it it was not all fun and games. It was wonderful to be able to spend the holidays with family. So nice to see everybody and laugh and just sit inside by the fireplace and talk. We realize now that we have really become true Floridians. The cold is not for us. We spent the majority of the trip freezing and taking turns being sick. Bentley spent the 1st week getting two new teeth. McCoy got a nasty ear infection and temperature of 106 that landed us in the ER. And Glade and I each got the flu. Good times LOL. I must say though that if I had to be sick, Idaho was the place to be. I got taken care of so well. I have honestly not been that sick EVER. My mommy made me chicken noodle soup and gave me a Vick's rub down to help me sweat out the sickness, and my wonderful mother in law made sure my hubby and kiddos were always fed while I was laid up in bed (and by bed I mean passed out on the floor or wherever I happen to be at that moment) I just couldn't stay awake. And Poor Glade got sick right at the tail end of our trip and had to fly home all sick. Happy to report that we are all germ free now!
We started off the Holiday's with a Christmas Eve Eve party at the Angilau's with all the Peterson clan. It was so much fun and so wonderful to see McCoy having so much fun playing with all his cousins. Santa even came and brought all the kids new Christmas Jammies. Then the kids dressed up and did a live navity scene.

In Idaho we celebrated with two Christmas Eve Parties, one at the Stokes and one at the Nana and Pop's House. Both were a blast. There was so much yummy treats and good times. Games and caroling, and good company. We woke up Christmas morning at Nana and Pop's house. Pops read us the Christmas story and I believe Uncle Jordan won the best Uncle award. His gifts for the kids were spot on. McCoy LOVES his AC/DC paper jams guitar and Bentz LOVES her snuggly glowing bear. Good job Unlce J. The kids and even Glade and I got spoiled. Thanks again everybody. And extra Thanks to Nana and Pops for my beautiful Jewelery! So glad you know a good jewelery man. (wink) I think my favorite gifts were my new robe, blue track suit and fuzzy socks beings as that is all I wore the week I was sick hee hee. And true to traditions, Nana made her special My 1st Christmas Tree just for Bentley's first Christmas. (McCoy had a blue and white one his first Christmas) Everything on the tree was for baby Bentley. She sure got spoiled. One of my favorite things in the tree was the baby dolly at the bottem of the tree. That was actually my first baby doll. So awesome that my mom saved it and now Bentley can play with it too. She LOVES baby dolly's. :)

(My amazing cousin Charisse made the girl's bibs. She is so crafty and her baby Hadyn is so cute!)

And the main reason for the trip, Little Bro's Wedding! It was so special to be able to able to be there to witness Jordan and Tiffini's wedding and watch my baby bro express his love for Tiffini. I also loved that my baby boy took part in the wedding line. He got to be a "pick boy". Kind of like a flower girl I guess, but for boys. Him and Tiffini's little brother wore tux's and had top hats filled with guitar picks that had the wedding date on them and they threw the picks into the crowed. It was was so cute. And my little man looked so handsome in his little tux! The wedding was beautiful and Jordan and Tiffini looked wonderful together. It was also nice to visit with family that I don't get to see very often. I still didn't feel like I got to see everybody, but thats how the story usually goes. Never enough time. We are looking forward to going back to Idaho/Utah but honestly can't say when that will be. We do know it won't be in the winter time again hee hee.

He made my night!

It's amazing how one little tiny phrase from one little tiny person can make you feel like your sitting on top of the world...

Tonight I thought I would do something silly for the McRoCkStaR and let him pretend shave in the shower with whip cream and a craft brush. I covered his face with whip cream and he had a ball scrapping it into his mouth. Then I gave him a water bottle to "clean" the shower for me. I let him play for a while and when he got out there was warm pj's and a hot towel straight from the dryer ready and waiting to wrap him up. After he got dressed he turned to me and said, "You are the BEST MOM!" Then he gave me a kiss and said "Love ya mom."

My heart melted. Right now he is balancing a fine line where he wants so hard to be a big boy but still be babied sometimes too, so sometimes we battle about which side of that line he is on or needs to get on. Already he tries at all cost to avoid holding my hand when we are out and about. And I've always called him boo boo but today he demanded I never call him that again because "boo boo is for babies and I am NOT a baby".

Maybe I do baby him a little too much, but what can I say he IS and ALWAYS will be my BABY BOY. I wish I could scoop him every night and snuggle him and rock him to sleep but alas, I will settle for the occasional moments when he wraps his little arms around me and snuggles into my neck for five seconds, the whispered secrets he loves to share, being the sole audience member to his random rock concerts or sidekick to whichever superhero he is that day - I will always and forever cherish this time where he still lets me into his make believe world. I only hope and pray that as he continues to grow into a big boy I will still be able to say that he lets me in...in for the occasional hugs, a few whispered secrets and into his world where make believe is left behind and reality and possibility await.

It's begining to look a lot like Florida Christmas...

I am in L-O-V-E with Christmas time! Everything about it. The bustle of busy holiday shoppers, the lights at night, nativity scenes, the red and green everywhere, decorating for Santa, family outings, Christmas movies, crafting, baking Christmas cookies and goodies, mall Santa's, dressing the whole family up for Christmas pics, the possibilities to witness miracles and celebrate the most special birth of all...Whats not to Love.

We didn't go all out with our decorations this year since we will be spending Christmas elsewhere, but we of course we had to put up our trees. :) And thanks to my most vary special cuzzie and the Stokes Bunch, we adopted a little Elf helper for the Holidays and named him Floppy Tutu. Bentley wants to love him, and by love I mean squeeze and shake till he breaks kinda love, and McCoy loves waking up every morning and searching for the Elf's new hiding place. We have really enjoyed Floppy Tutus visit thus far and are going to be sad when he has to go back to the North Pole. We have been having so much fun so far this December. It has even been very cool here, almost dare I say "chilly" even. We have busted out our beanies and mittens. Preparing ourselves for the real cold weather we are going to be facing soon. We are so excited for Christmas this year and have been counting down the days. McCoy has his Christmas chain going and takes a link of everyday. And everyday he gets that same excited grin when he says, "Only X more days till Christmas!"

McCoy's latest comments....

Talking to the Wii/TV: "Would you quit with the commentary already! We got it!"

Talking to Daddy: "Dad, you know better, you can't give me a glass cup. You know I can break those."

Talking to sissy: "Sissy, you can't touch that (The xbox), how many times am I gonna have to tell you this before you get it." And as she goes for it again, "Bentley, we juuuuussst weeennnt ooovvver this. Ah, not again...."

8 is GREAT!!!

Little Miss Princess Bentley Paige is 8 months old this week. I just can't believe how fast our lives have been speeding along since she came to us. She really keeps us moving :) Look what she can do... 1. Screech! Babble! Mumble! Shriek! She loves to explore her voice and gets pretty loud sometimes. 2.She can make the da and bu sound a lot but her favorite sounds are bubba bubba. McCoy is convinced she is saying Brother. Glade and I both agree Brother will be her first word! She adores him and every little thing he does. 3. She is cruisin'. Pulling herself up on the furniture and walking along the couches and chairs. 4.She puts herself to sleep! (big deal around here) She buries her face in her soft blankets when she is tired and then she strokes the blanket while she is falling asleep. 5. She loves to eat. We have yet to find something that she does not like or will not eat (again BIG deal around here since we already have a VERY picky eater). 6. She is really good at pretend coughing. I had a nasty cough for a couple of weeks so she started pretend coughing and every time she did we would pretend fuss over her so now she does it on purpose and then she smiles like she just pulled on over on us. 7. She wants to feed herself. We can't feed her without giving her her own utensil. She is so little miss independent. 8. She is the best baby ever. (OK so I may be a little partial) but everyday we feel truly blessed. She is a happy baby who is a bit of a mommies girl, is always so happy to see daddy and play with him, and she adores her big brother. We are such a lucky little family!

What do you do on the first cool day of fall....

...we go to the park! OK, I know most of you reading this are getting ready for or are all ready experiencing winter weather, but today here in the sunshine state we had our first cool/cold day of fall. It was 65 degrees mid morning so we hit the park. (During summer it is simply absurd to to play at the park because... well you will MELT!)

This was the first thing McCoy said after stepping out the back door to check the weather..."Boy it's really cold out there...I better find my beanie!" So we bundled up and ventured outside. Bentley giggled every time the breeze came by.

We hit Tiger Shark Cove park which McCoy calls Shark Park. My little social butterfly immediately made two new friends as is his usual protocol for anytime we are out and about so Bentley and I had a little fun on the swings. This was her first time swinging and she LOVED it! It was so fun to watch her giggle and get scared and excited at the same time. Had so much fun with my babies today. I have the best kids ever!

A little Fall Fun

We HEART Halloween and the whole month of October. Well for our family costumes McCoy said it was Star Wars or bust! He picked out our characters and we rolled with it. Glade is Han Solo, I am Princess Leia, Bentley is R2D2 and McCoy is a Storm Trooper. I have to add I wanted Bentley to have a pretty blue tutu to go with her costume but the McRocKsTar said NO. Apparently R2D2 is a boy. Also, my robe had a few small clear beads on the front. McCoy noticed it right away and pointed out that Princess Leia does not wear sparkles. He then said if I was going to wear sparkles that I should at LEAST carry a gun! On Halloween Night we had dinner with some good friends and then hit the pavement. Bentley boo was our little Punkin'. She lasted about ten minutes and then her and Daddy went back to the house to help hand out candy. McCoy was a Ninja and his little buddy Leah is Poison Ivy. They ran to each door and got so much candy. They wore us parents out.We did our trips to the pumpkin patch, we have been drinking our pumpkin spice eggnog everyday, and eating anything pumpkin we can get our hands on! We made candy apples the other weekend. Found out McCoy really likes caramels, but when he makes the caramel apples we slice them and then he still only eats the white part of the apple and leaves the skin and all the caramel. So I get caramel apple skins when hes through. Yummy good for me and good for his little teeth too! We had a fun fall play date with some good friends a couple of weeks ago. The kids frosted and decorated some Halloween Brownies and then decorated their own mini pumpkins. They also delved into some old Halloween costumes. McCoy and his Buddy Cohen stayed in costume the entire play date. They were some great green M&Ms. We always let the kids go for broke with the decorations, this is always what they come up with! A little cookie (or brownie or cupcake) and TONS of sprinkles!

Ok, so now what you are about to see is a little Halloween experiment....

When you have five minutes to come up with a costume for a party and you raid a little BOYS dress up box this is what you get....Guitar Hero Hero's! We may look nerdy but I'll have you know we were a big hit ;-)

And when you have five minutes and you raid a little Girls costume box this is what you get....Well, I'm not sure exactly what I was suppose to be. I let McCoy and Leah dress me and this is what they came up with. A Pink Witch? I was going to be butterfly but left my wings at home. Just thought it was funny how so different boys and girls dress up is LOL.