Baby Girls in a Big Girl room...

We finally moved Bentley into her own room. We originally said we would move her out between 4 and 6 months. Well, she is 10 1/2 months now so I guess its time. I have just not been ready to let go. I LOVED having her so close to me. We had her all set up in a little nook just off our master bedroom. I was so comforted having her there where I could watch her sleep and hear her every breath. I'm sure she liked the convenience of our closeness too. Actually I'm absolutely positive she liked it because she would wake me up once or twice a night to let me know. I did not mind though because I enjoyed our midnight snuggles. There is something so special and bonding about the utter silence and total awareness of the tiny little warm bundle in your arms as you rock. With McCoy I did not work and he was my only child so he and I got a lot of quiet together time, but sometimes I feel like Bentley gets cheated because I am always being pulled in so many different directions. That is why I treasured our night time snuggles in our comfy rocking recliner so so much. I know she won't ever remember them but I always will.

She LOVES her new room! We moved her last Sunday and this first week has been great! She was a little nervous when she saw us moving her bed. When we were carrying it through the door she quickly crawled over, growled at us, and then tried to climb on it as it was being moved. But as soon as she saw it all assembled again in her new room she was Happy as a clam. She LOVES her comfy bed and sleeps so good in it. She even weaned herself off nigh time feedings and sleeps through the night in her new room since night two. Honestly there is a tiny piece of me that is a little sad she no longer needs my snuggles at night, but I am so happy she adapted so fast and so well. She is such a wonderful baby.

Come one come all....

Can't believe it's fair time again already. We gathered up the kiddos and headed down to the good ol' county fair for a family fun day. The South Florida county fair is pretty big. We did LOTS of walking, but all in all it has the same basic stuff as most fairs I suppose. We saw horses and cows, tractors, fast cars, old cars, a comedy show, a laser light show, a science exhibit, a 4H tent where the kids played in a corn box NOT sand box. And then we left eating a funnel cake and cotton candy. Good times.

12 on the 12th

Here is a super fun little documenting idea i grabbed off the blog of Miranda Walker's: Narrating Life. If you are a crafty person this blog is a must read! Ok, so the basic idea is to take 12 pictures of 12 things you do on the 12th day of the month. (I missed the 12th yesterday so I am posting a day late. Will do better next month hopefully). So here is my 12 on 12.

"Morning Mom, Wanna play Legos?" We are still building Star Wars Lego sets we got for Christmas...will we ever finish?

Pinkalicous! The culprit? A pink frosted animal cracker.

Time to get organized. EVERYTHING must be written down or it is forgotten.

Cleaned the McRocKsTaR's room today. Boy Loves his guitars!

Finally put away the Christmas trees. Oh sad day.

Selling the Shape-Ups on craigslist. Loved them but they didn't love me. My back was having none of it. Old back problems acting up again and ruining my fun.

Finishing up the laundry. Does anyone else wash a RED only load?

Cheaper than a personal trainer! I HEART the XBox Kinect! It is so fun!

Before he hits the land of nod, we hit GEO Land. I busted these out yesterday and he hasn't stopped playing with them since. Love it when old toys are like new again!

The last of the soda stash! I have resolved to limit my soda intake, which means I will not be stocking up on Dr. Pepper or slipping the occasional Dews in my grocery cart anymore. (Ok, honestly this is still in the experimental stage. I'm no dummy I know my weaknesses. I'll keep you posted on my progress... ...or... ...lack there of.)

Night time snack any one? No bake cookies and Gooey Chocolate Chip! Good thing I already worked out.

Kids are asleep, time to catch up on Grey's.

P.S. I could not figure out how to do the grid grouping on flicker of all the pictures. If someone knows how could you please please leave me a How-To comment? Thanks bunches You Da Best!)

Sleep deprived? Not these two

My night...Put Bentley to bed and then an hour later put McCoy to bed and then an hour later go to bed myself. Sometime around three I wake up to feed and put Bentley back to bed, then before I go back to bed, I pick up McCoy who has snuck in my bed and take him back to his own bed where he wakes up and insist I snuggle him so I do and I end up falling asleep in his room for an hour and then I am awakened by Bentley's cries so I go and sooth her back to sleep and finally get back into my own bed and fall asleep. I do this song and dance one more time and at some point finally fall asleep in my own bed. And yet after all that...this is what I find in my bed when I awake! At some point I will sleep through the night and wake up well rested, but when I wake up to these two cuties in my bed and they are so peaceful I just can't help but smile and feel content. When my babies are happy I am happy. Sometimes life is just so simple :)

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!"