Much to be thankful for...

We had a WONDERFUL first Thanksgiving with Reid and all of Ben's family - we truly have much to be thankful for! So amazing to think that we only became eligible to adopt the week of Thanksgiving last year (2008)...and this year we have an almost 10 month old - God is good!

This has to be one of my favorite new pictures of the little man...completely sums up our day!

Reid with his Dad...

...and a pic with Mom (very bright early) =)

Spending a little quality time with Grandma

Around 10:30... All of Ben's cousins and their kids arrived..then Aunt Candice and Uncle Joey made it in from NYC

Reid loves his Grandpa!

Reider also had a great time playing with Jacob, Kayla, and Campbell...

Cousins...

Aunt Candice and Reid

Aunt Candice always has lots of fun treats for her nephew!

Sportin' his new sweater from his Uncle Joey and Aunt Candice =)

One of Ben's cousins, Tara, with Daisy (Reid's new BFF - ha)...

One side of the "kid" table - Mark, Britt, Tara, Me, Reid, Ben

And the other side... Uncle Jeff, Rob, Deb, Aunt Candice, Uncle Joey. All of the Grandparents were in the other room =)

Reid enjoying his sweet potatoes - he loved the sweet potatoes, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, ice cream, pies, fruit salad, and pumpkin rolls... kid's got a good appetite!

As I said... Reid and Daisy... new BFF's! She kept licking his face and he thought it was hilarious =)

And finally, the day ended for the little man with the Cowboy game... here he is all dressed up in his Cowboy gear with Dad...

We had such a great day giving thanks with all of our family here in PA - but we greatly missed our friends and other family back in TX - KK, Doc, Aunt Neely, and Uncle Craig. We love you and Reider had a blast video chatting with you today! We'll see you when we get home on Saturday!

We Made It!!!

So I have completely failed in my blogging mission to talk up adoption during the month of November... uggg... Life has just been completely INSANE keeping up with a very active 9 month old! But, rest assured... all is well in the Peterson casa... and...

WE SURVIVED OUR FIRST PLANE RIDE WITH REID TODAY!!! HOORAY!!! (That's no small feat, by the way!) Today marked the start of our first "real" family vacation as a family of 3. You know, where we had to fight the airport/holiday crowds, load up and ship the car seat, stroller, diapers/wipes, baby food, etc... what fun. Ha! In all seriousness, despite massive delays at the airports... it went very well and Reid was a trooper!

Where are we this week? (... you might ask...) We are spending the week in Philadelphia with Ben's family! We are very excited and already having so much fun! All of Ben's brothers and his Mom's side of the family are here. It should be a very fun first Thanksgiving for Reid. =)

So, all of that to say...I am trying to keep up with posting pictures each day as the week progresses to avoid getting even further behind in my blog posts. =)

Here are a few from our lovely airport adventure today...

11am: Our little fam... breathing sighs of relief that we actually made it to the airport alive, well, and in-tact... it was a bit of a crazy morning =)

11:30am: Reider and I right after he saw his first real airplane (he was VERY excited!)

1:00pm...Then began the airport delays. Apparently, Philadelphia was/is having bad weather, so we got to wait around in the DFW airport for an extra 3 hours. Yay. Thank goodness they had the awesome kiddie play area below:

Reid LOVED it... it kept him quite entertained and he even met a few friends!

2:00pm - Ben and Uncle Jeff got so bored that they even began to play. That's right... we talked Uncle Jeff into flying with us so that we had an extra set of hands. Sucker.

Finally... we were called to board the plane about 3pm... Please keep in mind, that Reid has had zero naps at this point. We were already making plans to buy drinks for everyone "fortunate" enough to sit by us. I had a feeling it was going to be a VERY long flight.

What I didn't know, is that my sweet husband had "charmed" one of the flight attendants (he calls it charming... I call it flirting... ) and he got all of us a row of seats COMPLETELY to ourselves - on a FULL plane, no less! That meant that Reid had his own seat (which we didn't pay for) and Uncle Jeff had two empty seats next to him that were perfect for Reid to play in =)

And wouldn't you know... we got on the plane about 3pm... just to sit for another hour. Sweet baby boy just sat perfectly content in his chair reading his books. Does it get any better than that?!? I was so impressed... love this little man so very much!!!

Finally, as the plane was taking off... I gave Reid a bottle and he passed out cold... no fussing or anything. =) (And yes, I look incredibly tired in this picture because I AM INCREDIBLY TIRED...it had been a long day.)

Handsome little guy! The extra seats were WONDERFUL! =)

That's all the pics for now! We finally landed in Philly and made it out to Ben's aunt & uncle's house. Reid was so excited to see everyone and definitely established himself as the center of attention. I have a feeling he won't be spoiled at all this week! And now... he's passed out cold in his little bed... I'm not far behind. More pics to come of Reid's first turkey day!

I warned you...

I have to say that I warned you about gearing up the adoption talk this month... And, without making a statement either way in regards to my political views, I do think this is AWESOME.  

White House Press Release

Happy National Adoption Month!

Video Happy

Here's a few videos of the Reidster we've taken over the last few days...enjoy!

Reid and the Fake Laugh:

The Mountain Climber:

Reid and Bubba = Buddies (kind-of):

And last, but not least... The Growl:

Happy 9-months, Reid! =)

WOW...what a difference 9 months makes!  I can't believe how quickly the time has gone... Michael Reid, you continue to bring nothing but pure joy and happiness to your Mom and Dad.  We love you more every day, if that's even possible!

You are EVERYWHERE now... crawling and pulling up on everything!  At times, you even think that you can walk and are learning the hard lessons of "respecting the floor."  You talk and laugh all of the time... it always makes us smile to hear your little voice and try to figure out what you are trying to tell us.  You've started saying a few words - mama, dada, baba (bottle, I think)... not sure you fully understand what you're saying yet, but it's a start.  Oh!  And how can I forget to mention your love for growling???  You think it's hilarious and growl at everyone you see.  You also love to sing in the car and are quite the "ham" in social settings - wanting to make everyone laugh (and you always do!). =)

You continue to be our own little food disposal - you eat a TON!  (And just about anything we put in front of you.)  You eat three full "food" meals per day and are still taking 4-5 8oz bottles.  If we don't feed you fast enough, we definitely hear about it.  =) Your new favorites are spaghetti, lasagna, and chicken with pasta.  You also love fruit smoothies for breakfast, have a sweet tooth for ice cream (just like your Dad!), and have finally mastered the sippy cup.  You LOVE brushing your two bottom teeth after you eat and have several more teeth trying to break through on the top.  I can't wait to see how much you've grown at your 9-month well check this Friday!

Your favorite toys continue to be anything electronic that aren't necessarily yours (laptops, cell phones, remote controls) - but you also LOVE anything with wheels.  We've already got quite the car collection going for you!  It's really fun to watch you "drive" your cars around on the floor now that you've figured out how to make them roll and move.  You also love to wrestle...that's how you and your Dad spend the majority of your time together...(and you wear your Mom out with it most days. =)  It's always fun to see how excited you get when your Dad gets home in the evening - melts my heart!

I could go on and on... My heart is just so full as I sit here and write this and think about where we were at this time last year.  We became eligible to adopt on November 18th of 2008...it hasn't even been a full year and we already have a 9-month old!  How fitting, too, that November is National Adoption Awareness month.  Just to give you fair warning...that means that I'm definitely going to take the adoption talk up a notch this month...haha! (As I hear a collective sigh from both of you reading this...=))

Happy 9-months, baby boy - we are forever thankful for you and we love you!

Reid's First Halloween

I can't even describe the added joy and fun that kids bring to holidays like Halloween - we had an absolute blast with our little guy yesterday!

As you can see below, Reider was a Dallas Cowboy - and a very cute one, I might add!  (Can you tell that his Dad picked out his costume? ha!)

Here's Reid doing his best Eli Manning impression...

Reider and I before his very first costume party

With his Dad =)

We had 3 different Halloween stops yesterday - busy, busy!  Our first, was sweet Adalyn Love's 1st birthday party.  We all had a blast!  It was a costume party for all of the kids - and Candace and Josiah did a fabulous job putting it all together.  There was a professional photographer taking pictures, incredible food, fun, and even more incredible cake.  

Here's a pick of Reid with Cade and the birthday pumpkin, Adalyn:

Hanging outside with Mom...

Reid & I, Adalyn & Candace, Isabella & Jayme - such special friends!!!

Our little family...Reid was definitely more into his football than smiling for the camera =)

Myself & Reider, Tiffany & Brielle, Jayme & Isabella - love you all!

And, yes...we did attempt some group pictures with all of the kids...that was quite a task!  I don't think we got a single picture with them all looking the same direction...=)

The funniest part was watching all of the parents trying to make their kid smile...

Such a happy boy! (I think this was when Candace pulled out the puffs...puffs = crack for babies)

The AMAZING Halloween cupcakes!  (I only had a few...haha)

After all of the costume party fun...we ran Reid home so that he could take a quick nap, then we were off to the Harwood Terrace Fall Festival with Grandma and Grandpa:

And Uncle Jeff who came home from Baylor for the weekend!

Reid had a great time meeting all of Grandma and Grandpa's friends...and then he found the leggos...

And the cars... (the boy LOVES anything with wheels!)

And for our final stop of the day, we headed over to Doc & KK's where Aunt Neely and Uncle Craig were having a party.  Here's a pic of Reider with his Doc and KK (so sad I didn't get one with Aunt Neely & Uncle Craig!)... As you can see, he had one of his cars and was not at all interested in anything else...

It was such a great Halloween!  We made so many fun family memories and are already looking forward to taking Reid trick-or-treating with all of his little buddies for the first time next year!

In other news... A lot of you read my tweet about our sweet friends whose adoption of baby Isaac fell through about two weeks ago.  (He was taken from them after several days because the birthparents changed their minds.)  Thank you so much for all of your prayers - I know they were truly felt.  In what seemed like a hopeless situation, God once again has made beauty from ashes... why does that never cease to amaze me??  Yesterday morning, Dave and Bethany got the best call of their life... the birthparents changed their minds (again) for the final time!  They had the great honor of brining Isaac David home FOREVER last night!  Praise the Lord!  It truly is a miraculous story and one that they are excited to share!  You can check out their blog for more details (http://www.teamrinntx.blogspot.com/).