Valentine's Day

Valentines Day has come and gone and yes I know...I'm finally writing about it! Peyton had a GREAT day. It was pajama day at school and he really enjoyed that. It was nice to get up and not have to rush to get ready for the day....we both showed up in our pj's and it was great! The teachers had gotten all the Mommies candles, bubble bath and chocolate so we could enjoy our time without the little ones. I thought that was so sweet. At lunch I went back to school to help out with the Valentine party. It was so cute to see all the little ones having lunch together....I would bet money that this is the only time the children eat quietly....I know thats true for Peyton anyways. I wanted to know who that child was and what did they do with my baby! It's so good to know that he behaves at school though. It was so fun playing with all of Peyton's friends. There was one little boy that apparently thought I was his mommy because he kept calling me Mommy the whole time I was there...he was so cute! Peyton got super jealous though because the little boy sat in my lap the whole time and Peyton is sure that my lap belongs only to him. We worked it out though. Now maybe it's only me, but I was totally shocked to see that everyone brought Valentines for 18 month olds....everyone except me!! Yes I'm a horrible mother but honestly it never occured to me that we would bring candy for 18 month olds. I felt SO BAD and I can guarantee it will never happen again, but really....who gives peppermints to an 18 month old. Thats right..one of the parents, whose child is Peytons age!, put peppermints in a goody bag. Totally blows my mind but whatever. After valentines day we went to Bossier for a long visit. We had a great time and both sets of grandparents got a good fix. Tomorrow we go for Peyton's 18 month check up...can't wait to expose him to all these sickly kids just for a check up. Say a prayer we stay healthy since we're on a pretty good streak right now. Tuesday we're heading back to Bossier for Sesame Street Live (woohoo) and the Michael Buble concert. I can't wait!! Well, this post has become random and lengthy so I must go. Have a great ending week!!

Peyton having lunch at school

Guess who turned 18 months old on Sunday?

PEYTON! yea! So it's been forever since I've posted, but I promise to try and do better. I have no excuse except that this little guy keeps me busy. If we're not playing outside, going to "school" or playing ball, then we're watching Elmo....It's Peyton's newest obsession and he'll cry until you finally give in and turn it on. I feel like a horrible mother by plopping my 18 month old son in front of "Nelno" as he calls it, but I can't bear to hear him be so upset over something so trivial. So we watch "Nelno" for the 8th time in a day. I think it's finally starting to wear on him and we're moving back to playing any kind of ball again. He has a whole new repitoire of words....not that I can prove it because the video I had of him saying them somehow didn't download and got deleted. I was so upset because it took all night to get him to say them and now we must try again. oh well....a few of his new words are: Elmo, dog...which sounds like dawg no doubt, shoe, he now says daddy instead of dada, Moo..as in a cow says "moo"....he also thinks that is the funniest sound ever, bye, cheese, Mamaw (Lisa's grandmother), he now says Abu instead of Ab-Ab for Abby and the newest one is Hola..spanish for Hello. Whew!! thats a lot of new words and I never really realize all of them until I write them out. Thursday he has Valentine's Day party at school....we're bringing cupcakes! The kids have done something special for the Mommies so I'm anxious to see what I get! Anyways, sorry for no video again tonight. I promise to get some loaded in the near future. I'll leave you with a few pictures of the little guy. Love to all!!

This is Peyton one year ago!! My how he's changed!

Football disappointments and.....SNOW?

Yes people.....it snowed in the deep south...and we missed it! This past weekend we headed to Bossier for one of my good friend's 30th birthday, and while we were having a fun, baby free night....hattiesburg received between 1 and 2 inches of snow! It did snow in Bossier...for a good 2-3 hours, but the temperature wasn't cold enough for it to stick. By the time the storm moved into Mississippi, the temperature had dropped and it stuck down here. On our way back down on Sunday, we saw snow on the side of the road as well as a few tiny snowmen....so cute. It was very odd to drive SOUTH to see snow. All that know us know that we lived in Kansas for 2 years so we have seen our share of snow....it was a big reason why we hated living there. Growing up in the south, snow has always been a huge excitement so when we moved up there and everyone was so just like whatever about it...it crushed my snow spirit. But I'm happy to say that I can once again be excited about seeing it snow, because I know that by noon the next day, it will all be melted!!

Paw and Peyton in the snow in Bossier

Peyton all bundled up for cold weather...yes he wore that hat last year

In other news....these last few weeks have been a huge let down for our little family. The Cowboys lost their playoff game....yes you can all take a moment of silence and pray that my husband will recover. Peyton got into the game also and in the very end when Brad threw his hat at the t.v., Peyton didn't miss a beat telling his daddy "UH OH". It was priceless. This past sunday ended with more disappointment when our "backup" team lost.....Green Bay couldn't pull it off in overtime. So now we're having this big super bowl party and we don't really even care to watch it!! Our little family will still put on our Dallas Cowboy jerseys and hope that next year will be a better year. We're already planning on going to at least one game since it will be the last year they will play in Texas Stadium....Peyton has to experience at least one game there...even if he won't remember it.

The fam in our Cowboy gear

This picture is just for fun...Peyton is wearing his train conductor hat and scarf...this was the only split second he would keep it on for a picture.

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!

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