Car Drive from...

We made it!! It was a REALLY REALLY long trip but we are finally sitting warm and snug in my parents home. We left Saturday night around 8 thinking that we were going to beat that horrible winter storm that was heading our way...or if not beat it have it pass right over us. We were horribly wrong. We made it about 150 miles in three hours and decided that we should stop for the night...if all of the truckers are pulling over you know it is pretty serious. We stopped for the night and got started early this morning. After 12 hours of driving, and two overly patient kids we are here!! So- hopefully you all have a wonderful holiday, and I will try to post again soon!!

New Do

So here is the new do, I am still not too sure about it but I am sure I will enjoy it more once I start doing it. (You know it is always hard when you come home from the salon and you really just want to do your hair...) Anyway- it is a nice change. And as far as the picture...this was at the end of a long day-I am already in my jammies!!

Bubba

So many have been asking to see some recent pics of Bennett...and here you go!! This is all 17lbs of him...and there is a lot of him!! But here is the newest dilema- as you can see he is no longer fitting in his baby bath tub but doesn't feel really comfortable in the big bath tub with just me holding him because he is well, not secure. Any suggestions? I have seen like a foam pad that you can put in the tub but has anyone ever tried it?? I would love any suggestions!

Preparing for Texas

Nothing too exciting has happened lately but thought it has been awhile- so thought I would just share the recent happenings in the Peterson household. Dustin is finally finishing up classes and work. So, I bet I will start seeing him around starting on Thursday (his first day off) so I am excited! This Christmas break will be a great break from school for him! I am doing great, I am excited for the new hair do and thanks for all the votes! I have an appointment set up for Thursday morning and will post pics as soon as I get home! Halle is not a big fan of the cold weather that we have been getting, mostly because it is too cold to even go out and play! She is looking forward to being in Texas at the end of the week so she can play in the warmth!! And, last but not least- Bennett is doing ok- poor guy is on steriod lotion for a rash, a different head lotion for another rash, and eye drops for an eye infection...yet he is still the happiest baby!! My big ole 17lb boy... yes he is very healthy for being only 3 months old. My kids are cute- tonight I decided I wanted to go running so Halle brought some books into our room and read Bennett stories the entire time I was running ( a good 20 minutes +) Halle is a great support team to running...she cheers me on and then when I am finished she gets on and runs (with the treadmill set on 1.0)! Other than that we are all doing great- we will be leaving for Texas on Saturday night for the vicious driving-through-the-night-beacuase-what-else-would-you-do-with-kids? And we are looking forward to it! I will try getting some more recent pics up soon!!

Famous Hubby

Ok, so it took me forever to figure out how to do this but- I finally did so you all can see!! We found out that Dustin was on Good Morning America yesterday morning!! This is a tiny picture of him when he was around 14 giving a talk at church!! They were doing a special on Mitt Romney yesterday and focused on the church and showed an excerpt of Dustin's old ward from when he was growing up (that was filmed back in the day by ABC news doing a piece in Dallas on family home evening and in the mormon church!!) So- needless to say we are quitting grad school, and Dustin will be pursuing a career in acting! Wish us luck!!

Eggnog

It is that time of year again, and Halle got her first taste of Eggnog the other day. The video is a little dark but the sounds is great- so turn up your computer!!




And of course the "mustache" picture...

Hair Do??

As many of you know I love changing things up a bit- so here is the new question. I am going to get my hair done in about 2 weeks before we go to Texas for Christmas and was considering getting bangs. Here are a couple of pics of bangs that I like... so please vote and let me know what you think!! I will also post a pic of myself so...vote away!

Playing soccer

We already have a athlete in the making. Last night we were playing soccer as a family...and yes in the house!




Bennett was giggling and laughing the whole time. And Halle just loved that she was able to play ball with him!




And of course a picture of my two men...I love them!!

Angelina Jolie

Now at first glance the title might make you think that we ran into Angelina.. in Indiana...hahah, yeah right! It has been a while since my last post and I have a VERY good reason. For those of you who don't know we live in a town home, that is three stories. So that makes three flights of stairs-one to go upstairs, and one to go down to the basement. Halle has been really good at stairs minus a couple of minor trip ups- you know like falling down two or three stairs. Nothing big and usually only coming out with a bruise. All of this changed on Friday night. Dustin and his Dad went to the Mavericks/Pacers game leaving me home with both kiddos for a "quiet" evening. We ate dinner then headed upstairs to go play in her room when it happened. I was at the bottom of the stairs holding Bennett when Halle (from the top of the stairs) fell the entire flight of stairs on her face. She was going up the stairs and just lost her footing and slid the entire flight...it was so horrifying to watch because it just happened so fast! I stopped her about 3 steps from the bottom, then hurried and put Bennett down - then grabbed Halle and pulled her up. For those of you who have never expierenced a mouth wound with a toddler THEY BLEED. I am talking like everywhere. I for sure thought that we were going to go to the ER, so I called our Doctor and spoke with a nurse. She reminded me that the mouth bleeds so just get it to stop bleeding then look at the damage and see what happened-and if needed she would try and find a dentist open early tomorrow morning to take care of teeth. We eventually got the bleeding to slow down and went upstairs to get in the bath and see what we could find. The good news was that she hadn't gone through her lip (gross, but quite possible) so I gave her some pain meds then we snuggled after Bennett went to bed. She woke up early the next morning, sore, but quite chipper...and her lips looked like ...yes Angelina Jolie



I gave her some more pain meds and then waited to see how she felt. I realized her teeth were fine when she asked for a carrot for snack...so we still have all our teeth. Halle miraculously came out of this with a huge lips, a nasty nasty rug burn down her chin, and a (sorry if too graphic) mutilated inside of her mouth (due to those sharp toddler teeth!!) We went to the Doctor today to finally do a once over just to make sure everything was healing and she said that we were so lucky Halle's teeth didn't go through her lip. She said it looked really close, but it didn't so just count our blessings.

SO-needless to say...I want a ranch house. With no stairs...at least until all my babies are old enough that they won't do that much damage.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We did- Dustin's dad is in town for the weekend and so it has been a blast thus far. I was a little nervous making a whole Thanksgiving dinner all by myself but I did it...and only 1 catastrophe ( I burned the pumpkin pie crust...not favorite anyway so...) but it all ended up delicious!



We got to set up our Christmas tree today and of course we had a great little helper! I tried to teach Halle to put the ornaments up, she caught on although then she would only put the ornaments on one branch causing all the ornaments to then fall off. Needless to say that it took a long time to decorate our tree. Then the kiddos got to wear their Christmas jammies to bed...I just love this time of year!!!

Can I do it??

So now that I am not pregnant I have decided that I wanted to get back into shape. What better way than to register for a mini-marathon!! Crazy? Yes, i think so- but It will get me running!! So last night Dustin and I both registered for the Indy mini! It is run on May 3rd which is the day after Dustin's graduation from grad school! So, I have 164 days to train to run this thing!! The money is paid so I better get started!!

Some of the info about this mini is:

Last year’s Mini-Marathon and 5K were sell-out events, reaching capacity on the earliest date in event history, on November 27, (nearly 5 months prior to the event).

• Not only the largest half-marathon in the U.S., but the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon received praise in Runners World, listed as one of “A Half Dozen Hot Halfs” in the world, based on participant experience in the 13.1-mile half-marathon. They had 35,000 participants last year!!

A co-worker told us that the reason why he loves running this one is because everyone is always cheering you on. If you start to slow you will fill lots of people patting your back telling you to keep going...helping you to push on!! I am super excited!!

Preview for Christmas

So, sorry that I can't turn these but they are a preview of our kiddos Christmas pictures! I didn't realize how hard it was with two kids to take pictures...and I was SO glad that Dustin came because it was chaos. And it didn't help that the photographer was...what is the nice way to say the worst photographer that I have ever worked with in my whole life?? Anyway- we did get a couple of cute ones so it was all worth it.

Don't tell my daughter my real name is "Samye"

So this started yesterday with Halle standing at the top of the stairs yelling "Samye...come here Samye" over and over. She finally came downstairs and I asked her, "Halle what is my name?" She answered Mommy.

Ok...so what is this whole Samye thing? She continued to do it all day yesterday calling me...and today...then finally I realized what she was doing. Halle calls me "sweetie" often-picking that up from Dustin. SO we realized tonight that she thinks that Samye is just another pet name -she walked up to Dustin and said "Here Samye, here Samye Daddy".

So if my daughter ever calls you Samye...take it as a compliment and smile.

Any Similarities?

We were laughing tonight at how similar our kiddos are and had to put this pic up...I think in the picture Halle is about a month older than Bennett is now but they look SO SIMILAR!! We think that Bennett has more of a round pumpkin head (Martino trait) and Halle had more of a peanut head (Peterson's!!) We thought it was cute to compare though!!

Sleeping

I wanted to put this up for the grand's... that way they can hear some of Bennett's first laughs! (Also the Aunties and Uncles...and of course all of my friends!!)



And announce the great news...he slept all night last night!!! Yipee!! He went down about 8 and didn't wake up till 6!! I am sure since Dustin left to go out of town today he will not sleep through the night tonight, but hey...we are getting there!!

Two Months

So we had Bennett's two month appointment this past week along with family flu shots (it was quite the event!!) Bennett is doing great, he is weighing in just shy of 15 lbs (HOLY COW!) I have one big boy! He is doing great though, only waking up once at night now around 4...so we are super close to sleeping through the night. He loves interacting with Halle and watching her. Anytime she gets close he starts googling and smiling, it is so cute! Anyway- i will have to write more later...Halle has a friend over Eli whose mom is having a baby today!! So we are off to play!!

HELP!!!!!

OK, I NEED HELP!! Of course I was messing around with my blog background and somehow erased ALL LINKS!! I have no clue what everyone's blog is!! SO, PLEASE either post your blog address or email me it at samyepeterson@gmail.com I hope to get everyone's link!!!!
THANKS!

Playing in the leaves

Thankful

So It has been a while since I have written anything... I know...but things have been a bit hectic. Dustin was in Chicago for the weekend and the rest of us caught colds while he was gone!! (miserable!) But things are getting better!!

And before I really start, I wanted to write a little side note to all of you who might read this. This blog is like a journal to me, I get to write my daily happenings...which comes from me personally. I think it shows my style when you look at my writing and realize that I can't use just one exclamation point...and my spelling...not my best feature either. Oh wait (you might say) aren't you a graduated English major?? Why yes I am...I was only required to take one grammer class and I hated it...I hated it so much that I took my professor cookies every week. (Yes I passed...due I think to my baking). I don't use correct grammer, and I never use the spell check. SO- for those of you wondering about my English skills- they are all focused on reading. I am a READER. I love to read...for example (thanks to all of you who recomended it) I just read the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in 1 Day. Did I neglect the children? No, I read the entire 500 pg book during nap time and then at night. So, please don't critisize my ability to write...just enjoy the fact that I can actually spell well enough for you to understand what we did.

NOW on to something that Emily has asked me to do- and that is 10 things that I am thankful for.

1. My husband- for the love and support he gives to me.. For the never ending strength he shows as he continues to go to school and provide for his family.

2. My Children- yes crazy I am saying children. I am thankful for the lessons they teach me and the never ending love they express.

3. Family- for the love and support they give to us while we are here in Indiana. I know they hate the fact that we are so far away but they are still so proud for what we are doing. For their love and support even though they know that we will probably never end up really close to home.

4. The gospel- I find so much strength and comfort in my religion. I believe and know that one day I will be given the opportunity to hug my brother and tell him how much I truly do love him. How even though we fought like cats and dogs...well no more like wild carniverous bears..that I always loved him for him.

5. Strength- I am amazed at the strength I have been given. That i might have the ability to walk around on a day to day basis with no problems. That through all the midnight feedings I still can think somewhat logically daily.

6. FInances- My husband had the ability to land at the #1 institution for his degree...and while doing that landed an assitantship that pays 100% of his tuition, health insurance, and gives us a monthly stipend to live off of. We will graduate from this Masters program with zero debt.

7. Friends- I am so grateful for all the friends that I have made throughout this life...the ability that we have to stay in touch for years and years. For the willingness that friends show to help and their ability to be that friend that you have always searched for.

8. Beauty- for the earth around us. Right now in Indiana the leaves are changing colors (something you never see in Texas) and with the change that is going on it just makes you more thankful for the beauty that surrouds you on a daily basis.

9. I am sure there are so many other things that I am thankful for...yet I just can't recall what they would be!

I ask these people to tell me those things they are thankful for: Marissa, Ali, Jamie, Shannon, and Deya.

Happy Halloween!!

We had so much fun trick-or-treating this Halloween!! Halle was super cute and very excited all day practicing her "trick-or-treat" but when push came to shove she was so nervous!! Her little mousey voice was barely audible- and by the end of the night she was so exhausted that she asked Bennett if she could please get in the stroller. Hope everyone else had a great Halloween!!

An Angel and a Teddy Bear

This is a couple of pictures of the kids at our church Halloween party. Halle had a blast, especially during the trunk or treating...she had her little friend Maya (the lady bug) walking around and getting candy together!! We are very excited for Wednesday when she will really get to go trick or treating!!!

AND today is day 1 of potty training...so far it is going great!!! I will keep you all updated!!

WAY COOL!

Everyone has to try this new website, I think it is super fun-it gets your mind thinking, and it helps out people!! Try it! It is: www.freerice.com

What a Mess

Dustin was such a sweet heart and brought Halle a "special treat" yesterday for being such a good helper. He gave it to her when I went and picked him up from work and we really really (for one of the first times ever) enjoyed a very quiet ride home. We turned around when we got home to see why she was so quiet!! Needless to say we won't be having these kind of treats in the car anymore; we will have to wait until we are home!!

Freeman Family Farms

We went to Freeman Family Farms on Saturday and it was a blast!! It is a farm here that has a pumpkin patch, and you ride a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch! They also had a petting zoo, and a little train for little people (no not midgets but little people like Halle's). We had so much fun watching Halle's eyes light up with all the different activities!



We also got some super cute shots of Halle...such a cheeser!

Potty talk

So I am gearing up to start potty training Halle and would appreciate ANY advice that anyone has to offer. Just to give a background, she is interested in using the potty....loves the princess panties that we talk about... hates going #2 in her diaper... so I think we are ready. I already got some great advice from my friend Jamie but anything else would be helpful!!

Tagged....again...

Thank you Deya...once again tagged, but a different one! Facts and habits...lets see...

1. I am extremly double jointed...well I used to be really bad but now it is not a big deal.

2. I have a family name, my first name Samye comes from my great-grandma and my middle name from my grandma. Both who were amazing women and I would love to be end up like.

3. The toilet paper in our home has to roll over the roll...and if I am anywhere (anyones home) I will fix the toilet paper for them. It drives me bonkers.

4. I pick. Yep, I am an addicted picker. I pick the skin around my fingers commonly known as the cuticles like crazy. It is a horrid habit and Dustin hates it...and I actually don't even realize that I do it until the deed has been done. I do it more when I am stressed...weird i know.

5.I am a morning person. I love the mornings...it is harder with a 6 week old to really enjoy the mornings but I do love them. I love everything about mornings...especially breakfast.

6. Last but not least ( I am pulling deep here) I threw the shotput in highschool. Yes...every girl that I ever competed with outweighed me by a good 100lbs, but it was fun to do...and hey I developed some pretty muscles too!!

Photo Shoot

Here is a cute photo shoot of my darling kiddos!! We took these for my Dad (and all other grandparents) but these are to get my dad through his 24 hour flight and 2 week adventure in China!! We love you Pops!

Congrats Tiff!!

I have to post this because I think this picture is so beautiful!! My cousin (whom many of you know) is getting married next month and we are so super excited for her and her new husband Daniel. They are the perfect couple and are so in love...it actually brought tears to my eyes looking at their website!! You should check it out it is www.danielandtiffany.weddingwindow.com Once again we are so super excited for her and wish them nothing but happiness, bliss, and love throughout their lives together!!!

help!

Ok, so question for all of you who have super cut blogs.how did you do it???? (ones that come to mind.....Shannon, Marissa, Sara,....yeah basically everyone!) Please fill me in I would love to update mine... THANKS~!

Making "ghosties" and the poop story

So the fun Halloween activity we did today was make ghosts out of suckers and tissues...and Halle loved it!

Anyway- the fun story today will have you all rolling on the ground. Bennett was in his little chair earlier today and started screaming his little head off so Dustin being the great dad that he is picked him up and was playing airplane with him. He was still screaming this whole time so I knew it was time for him to eat...I got ready and Dustin handed him to me. In about .2 seconds I realized that he was SUPER POOPY...like I am talking explosion up his back, down his back...everywhere. I went to go change him and about the same time told Dustin to come over and check it out. I showed him...changed him...then about 2 minutes later Dustin admitted something to me. Well before we get to this admittance you have to know that we were having tacos for dinner. Anyway- so Dustin at that point realized that he had been holding Bennett...and then handed him to me and went back into the kitchen. Thinking that he had cheese sauce from the tacos on his hands he LICKED HIS HANDS!!! SERIOUS! The worst part is that he smelled his hands first, thought it was cheese sauce and then licked both hands. It took a long time for me to stop laughing at him...because he licked his hands with poop on them.

Our Big Boy

Well it is official...Bennett is going to be big. Let me explain, Halle from day 1 was right along with the sizes that clothes come in...example, for the first 3 months of her life she stayed in 0-3 month clothing...etc. So, I figured that for Bennett I was going to be super smart and frugal and buy things ahead. I have this super cute matching Easter outfit that I just don't think is going to work. Today we moved up...we are in 3-6 month old clothing and he is not even 5 weeks old!! I know! Well other than that things are great, we luckily had a cold front come through today so it was around 55 degrees outside...the day before it had been 92!! Hopefully this fall weather will be here awhile before the Arctic frost comes through! Halle has become quite the helper with Bennett...she has started to want to pick him up so I can't leave him for a second while she is awake and in the room! Other than that we are doing great, and are in the market for a new car, Dustin said that I should ask for every one's opinion of what we should get...not saying that the final say will come from what everyone thinks on the blog but it would be nice to see what you all have to say. I know what I am leaning towards but wanted to hear: it is between (I know odd choices) the Honda Odessey (yes a mini...) and the Toyota Sequioa. So let me hear it!!

Dance dance...

Thought you all would enjoy...Halle is being so thoughtful including Bennett in her dance party!!

Bennett's Blessing Day

Here is the family pic from his blessing...and yes he is screaming throughout every picture we took....love it!