Where do I start?

I guess not too terribly much has happened since my last post. Peyton is over strep...thank goodness. He's always so good when he's sick....thats part of the problem...you sometimes don't know when he's even sick! This week he started back at Mom's Day Out or as he calls it "dool" (meaning school). I just knew he was going to be excited to go back, but for the first time since he started school...he cried. :-( It didn't help that I forgot his pacifier and his wooby (his blanket). I brought his blanket back to him because I knew he'd never make it through the day, but he totally lost it when he saw me. He made it through the day though and we're praying tomorrow is better. Brad and I also got to make up for our lost "baby free" weekend. Mom met us in Vicksburg last friday to take the little guy for the weekend. We missed him terribly, but enjoyed our weekend immensely!! We got to eat meals in peace and even got to see a movie! It was awesome as we had forgotten what it was like before baby. While we definitely enjoy going out on our own, we both concluded that we wouldn't trade these days for anything! I felt lost most of the weekend without him so it was nice to get my little man back on sunday. A few new things Peyton is doing....he's learned how to eat a banana by himself and he can eat a sandwich cut into triangles. He's so big. He can also say "pat" and "brat" (thanks a lot Uncle D!). He consistently calls for Paw when you ask Pepper if she needs to go potty or if animals are on t.v. Not sure what thats all about, but at least we know Paw is on his mind! He tries to put his shoes on himself...unsuccessfully, and is also trying to say "shoe" which sounds like "dool" which means "school". Very confusing. He also learned how to put together a bookshelf last week...he helped Dad put his together and did a great job. Now he has a beautiful shelf to put all his wonderful books on that we have to read 100 times a day. It's great. That about wraps it up. I'll leave you with A LOT of random pictures. Enjoy!!

I can eat a banana all by myself

LSU won!!

Peyton likes to play hide-n-go-seek....this is his hiding place

Dad...this piece goes right here!

Yep Mom...building bookshelves is Man work

It's the funniest thing....the spaghetti just threw itself at my face!

Grab some cocoa...it's gonna be a long post!

Happy new year!! So this post is long overdue, but i always say better late than never. We had an awesome Christmas...as always....but so much more fun now that Peyton is into presents. Once he figured out that after you rip the paper you're suppose to say "awww" he totally got into it. So cute. We had a great time visiting with family and watching Peyton play with his cousins. I can already see that he's going to be the "tag along" cousin because he LOVES playing with Piper and just waits for her to pretty much do anything he can laugh at. Anywhere she goes...he goes. It's sweet and fortunately Piper loves being with him as much as he with her. They'll be best friends I'm sure. Abby was as sweet as ever, too. She's growing so fast and Peyton loves to look at her and show her where her eyes, nose and mouth are. I don't think she enjoys being shown these things so much, but she humors him. We're still working on "be sweet to the baby" but for some reason he still feels the need to whop her one every now and then. Can't wait till she whops him back!! We all were spoiled tremendously and as the many pictures would give away, I got an awesome new camera. I love it and can't wait to take more pictures!! Peyton was spoiled rotten getting a new tricycle, rocking horse and a riding lawn mower among MANY other things. We finally made it home on Friday.....unfortunately with the baby. Ok so that sounded bad, but he was suppose to stay with Maw and Paw in Bossier for a few days. Thursday, as we were literally walking out the door, I realized that Peyton felt warm after his nap. Yep, he had a fever....a very high fever. So against everything I believe in, I took him to quick care in Bossier. Anyone who knows me knows that I despise any kind of quick care because he was misdiagnosed twice for ear infections. Anyways, the Dr. said it was a virus...yeah right. By friday morning he was still running a fever and would not eat. So my mom and my brother packed us up and brought us to Hattiesburg. (brad had already left b/c he went on call thursday night) Saturday morning Peyton was still running a high fever and started shaking really bad when his fever would spike. We took him to OUR pediatrician, he was tested for strep and we found out sunday that the test came back positive. So now we can make that the 3rd time quick care misdiagnosed. He's doing much better now I'm happy to say and I'm so thankful that our pediatric clinic is open on weekends. So that pretty much sums up our Christmas vacation. We've spent he last few days being lazy and getting the baby well. Tomorrow is back to reality, but we've enjoyed it while it lasted. Hope everyone had a great New Year and don't make any resolutions you can't keep....I resolve to have no resolutions :-)
Enjoy these pictures...sorry for so many!!

Peyton loved Maw and Paw's snowman

His new horse...it's a Clydesdale

Our little cowboy

You want me to do WHAT?

Abby and Peyton

Pepper is so funny

Christmas morning at the Hoeflers

Here comes Santa Claus...

This Sunday Santa visited our house early. Since we will be in Bossier for Christmas, we decided we would celebrate with Peyton a little early. It was definitely more fun this year than last year, but we learned a valuable lesson. Do not give Peyton a truck, train or vehicle of any kind before he opens his other presents! Once he saw his train set, he was uninterested in opening anything else...which is good because that was his big present and after 3 hours of assembly last night, we both joked that if he hated it, we'd never get him another present! ha! I was quite proud of us, though, for putting this thing together in only 3 hours. Yes I said "only" because I'm very certain you have to be an engineer of some sort to put the actual train together. I'm still not sure we got it totally right, but it's irrelevant now....Peyton finds it amusing to take it apart anyways. Oh well, he's having fun right! Brad and I had a blast doing this project together and I think that was the point anyways. We don't get much time to do things together and if we have to find that time by putting together toys, then so be it. Peyton did enjoy many of his other presents....like the $2 John Deer Tractor or the $3 truck. Thank goodness he liked the toys and not the boxes though! He also got his first golf clubs....he and daddy spent the afternoon working on the basics....I'm not sure who was teaching who though. Anyways, enjoy the pictures that follow. Hope everyone has a fantabulous Christmas! Look for more pictures soon!

This pic was for fun....look at those curls!

Mommy and Daddy having fun putting together the train!

Daddy putting together the train

The Train Set completed!

Mommy reads instructions the best!

Peyton loves his train!

The Wonderfulness of Peyton

With Peyton sitting in my lap as I type this, I think back to how incredible this last year has been. It has only been a short year ago that we were celebrating Peyton sleeping through the night in his own room. Now we celebrate walking and talking...it's amazing how much a year brings. On that note, I think I have not updated on all the cool things Peyton is doing these days. He now weighs in at a whopping 23 pounds and is 30 1/2 inches long. Yes he's still petite, but he doesn't know that. Yesterday he flew face first off the front step...ending in tears and a few nice scrapes on his face....he cried for all of a few seconds and then ran off to play something else. He's all boy! Here are a few words Peyton can say:
*Momma
*Dada and sometimes Daddy
*Pepper (it's still Bob)
*Maw
*Paw
*Nana
*Pop
*Ball (it's still Bawwwlll)
*Abby (Ab-Ab)
*Nite Nite
*School
*Out
*No
*More
*Hello
*Nose
*Eye
*He attempts to say cookie and lawn mower

Peyton can walk, wave bye bye, pull out all the Tupperware, dance and climb! He also can make a piggy noise when asked "what does a pig say" and pants like a dog when asked "what does Pepper say". So cute!

On that note I'll leave you with a video of Peyton dancing and playing with his Dad. Turn up your speakers...Peyton rocks out to Elvis Christmas music!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Safe and Sound!

Peyton playing in the waiting room

Mom and Peyton in our "room". Peyton just had some happy medicine

Peyton after his happy medicinePeyton and Dad putting ornaments on the tree

Peyton is such a trooper! All went well this morning and it so was not a big deal. His only issue was waking up...he cried for about 20 minutes straight and then off and on the whole way home. We were told to expect that though. The outpatient center was wonderful and everyone was really nice...we even saw the Dr. that delivered Peyton as well as my anesthesiologist for my c-section. It was like a family reunion! The whole surgery took all of 7 minutes and we were home before 9:00 a.m. We thought Peyton was going to spend the day sleeping....so wrong! We managed to get the Christmas tree up, but we certainly accomplish all we thought. He did go to bed early which was great...I hope tomorrow will be a day less fussy! Thanks for all the phone calls and emails....we appreciate it!

1st haircut and little blue tubes

Peyton officially got his first haircut yesterday! It broke my heart to cut his beautiful hair, but he got his mother's crazy curls and it was more than I could handle. He was such a big boy and there were no tears! yea!

Daddy and Peyton pre-haircut....notice Peyton's big smile :-)

Miss Erin and Peyton....he loves her to death and obviously thinks he's "the man"

Tada!! All done...look at those curls!!

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas approaching we have decided that now is the time for Peyton to get his tubes. For those that don't know, Peyton has been fighting ear infections since June. Most recently he has had one for over a month. He has been a trooper with the pain, but this last one has given him a really hard time. After mis-diagnosis at two quick cares and tons of antibiotics later, our pediatrician suggested taking him to an Ear, Nose and Throat Dr. last week. With cold season just getting started, he suggested that we go ahead and get tubes for Peyton's ears :-( We go in tomorrow at 6:30 a.m and I am a disaster!! The surgery itself will only take 15 minutes, but I would have to think that I wouldn't be a normal Mom if I didn't worry. I'm looking forward to this being relief for Peyton and definitley fewer ear infections for him. Say a prayer for us as we get up at the crack of dawn and take our little man into surgery. I will update hopefully tomorrow night!!

Family fun and a football game

What a fun weekend! This Saturday we met up with Brad's family in Baton Rouge for the LSU vs LA Tech football game. It was a blast! Needless to say the guys went to the game and the girls (plus one boy!) did what we do best....shop! We had a blast with the kiddos at the mall and they both did wonderfully. Nana got a lot more pictures than I did so I will post those as soon as I get them. One thing we discovered on this trip is that Peyton is so not ready for a little brother or sister. He so doesn't get that babies are not toys and are not for hitting and rolling on. Thankfully Abby escaped with no injuries...Christmas should be interesting...hopefully Abby will fight back by then! ha! He also would get extremely jealous if Brad or I held Abby for too long....at least we knows he loves us! On Sunday we decided to go to LSU and take our family picture for our Christmas card. We also got some cute pics of the babies....I wont share the family ones (you'll have to wait till Christmas) but here are some sweet ones of the kids..enjoy!