Kenzie's Christmas dance

Well, it's been a while since I've updated. I guess I enjoy reading other people's blogs more than updating my own.

Kenzie had her Christmas recitals for dance and tumbling this last week which were really fun to watch. She did tumbling on Monday, jazz on Wednesday, and ballet on Saturday. Most of our pictures didn't turn out too well because of the movement, but here's a sampling. She's turning into such a pretty dancer!!

Back to the land of computers

It's so funny how much I rely on my computer nowadays. It used to be that the computer was something I played Solitaire on once in a while and now it has turned into something that I use on a daily basis for something or other. First of all, I work at home doing medical transcription, so I use it for work, I read the news online rather than watch it, I check the sale ads on Pinching Your Pennies rather than read the actual sale papers, and then of course there's Facebook, blogs, and e-mail to keep up on.

So, for the past week I have been unable to be on a computer at all because of a nasty virus. It hit my computer last Sunday while I was working (I guess that's a sign I shouldn't have been working on a Sunday right:) So, we thought we could use anti-virus software to get rid of it, but not so. Les decided our safest route was to completely reformat the computer. Yikes!!! We had to order an external hard drive to back up all the files we needed and then wait for it to arrive. It came Thursday and we finally got everything set back up yesterday. It's so hard to get everything back to the way you had it before, but so far I think it's pretty good.

So, you may ask, what did I do this week without my computer? Well, I caught up on laundry, cleaned up the house, took the kids to the library, read a book, made new watchbands for my interchangeable watch, played a lot of Scrabble on my cell phone, and tried to start potty training Brooklyn.

Apparently I spend way more time on the computer than I had originally thought because I sure accomplished a lot this week!! Maybe this week will teach me to balance my time better, who knows, but I sure am glad to be back online!!!

Update on the food coloring incident

A few of you have shown some interest in whether the food coloring has come out, so here's an update. As far as the best cleaning method, just plain water and a lot of towels has worked the best. The couch looks pretty good, but there are a couple spots that still need some work. The floor is slowly coming clean, but because there was so much of it, it's taking a lot of water and a lot of blotting. I will also need to clean the entire floor once I'm done because now I have cleaner spots than the rest of the carpet. As far as the kids, they still have spots, but it's getting lighter. And the dog...well he's still looking very patriotic :) So, if this ever happens to you, just grab a bunch of water and a bunch of towels and have fun!!!

Also, I cannot say enough about microfiber couches!!! I don't think I would have had as good of luck with some other kind of fabric. Microfiber is definitely the way to go with kids around!!!

The food coloring incident

I've been told by many people that if your kids do something that you're really upset about, then just grab your camera because you'll think it's funny later on. Well, I did just that and I really do hope that I find this funny later on!!! This is what happens when the food coloring that was used the night before doesn't get put back on the highest shelf in the cupboard.

I'm not sure if you can tell exactly how much food coloring they actually got into, but it was all over them, the couch, the carpet, and the dog. Food coloring in that amount is not the easiest thing to clean and unfortunately it is an ongoing process right now. It won't come off the kids, I haven't even tried the dog and the carpet still has a slight shade of pink. The couch doesn't look too bad, but there's still more coloring coming off of it each time I wipe it down. So, if anyone has any ideas about how to get food coloring out, let me know. As of now, I will be doing research on the internet until I find something that works.

Halloween, I know I'm a little late

We really did celebrate Halloween around here, I'm just really slow about actually posting about it. We went to several parties and got lots of candy and had a great time. Les and I were party poopers this year and didn't dress up, but here are the kids costumes:

Brooklyn was a witch.

Kenzie was Hannah Montana

Kaden was a cowboy.

Cody was a hobo.

Pictures were nearly the death of me!!!

As you can see, we finally did get pictures of everybody this time around, but not without more drama of course!! I got the kids all dressed up exactly how they were the week before and set out for Layton Park. I decided to start with a picture of all the kids together and then move on to individuals, but unfortunately the kids were not being very cooperative and that was taking forever. As soon as I decided that I had a good group picture and was ready to move on my camera battery died. I was so mad!!! We have an extra battery, but it has been missing for quite some time. Lucky for me we had the battery charger in the car, so I charged the battery while the kids played at the park. I had called Les to vent my frustration and he felt bad and left work early to help me finish the pictures. We were finally able to get the rest of the pictures and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

My next project was making a new blog header. I knew what I wanted, but wasn't exactly sure how to get it. I finally got something close, but I'm still not super happy with it. I don't know why I took it upon myself to do the blog header considering my husband designs web pages for a living and could have probably done it in half the time and had it looking fabulous. Actually, I do know why, it's because I'm very inpatient and didn't want to wait around for him to do it. He has promised to clean it up for me and make it look more how I had envisioned it, but until then I'm just going to leave my version for everyone to see. I'm so glad pictures are done!!!

I forgot one of my kids!!!!

Now, before anybody gets worried that I left one of my kids home alone or at the store or something, rest assured it's not that bad!!! However, we went up to Beus's Pond on Saturday to have some family pictures done and to also take individual pictures of each of the kids. So, kids being kids, they weren't all that cooperative with the picture taking, which of course left us quite stressed out. We left the individual pictures until the end and also took pictures of the girls together and the boys together. Well...as I was going through our pictures yesterday to pick which ones to print, I noticed that we didn't have an individual pictures of Kenzie. We got her picture taken with Brooklyn, but never had her pose by herself. I asked her about it yesterday to see if she realized we hadn't taken her picture and she said she didn't realize we had taken a picture of Cody and thought that we were only taking pictures of Kaden and Brooklyn. How sad is that!!! So, since the kids get out of school early tomorrow and I wasn't overly thrilled with any of the pictures that I got of them anyway, I am taking them all up to Layton Park to try again. Hopefully I will get better pictures of each of them since they won't be posing for family pictures and maybe I won't forget any of them this time :) Wish me luck!!!

Corn maze

We went to the Black Island Farms corn maze in Syracuse today and had a blast!! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no cute pictures to accompany this post, but I figured I could tell about what we did. We went as a ward so that we could get the discounted price, which definitely helps out when you've got four kids you're paying for!!! So the activities included a hay ride where everybody got to pick out a pumpkin, the corn maze, which is huge, the courtyard which had slides, a cow train, see-saws, pumpkin bounce house, animals, etc. There was so much to do, we ended up staying there for 4 hours. Brooklyn really liked the big slides, but of course couldn't go down them alone, so I got to experience them as well, which actually turned out to be pretty fun. We only did one part of the maze since it is pretty big and the kids were having a lot more fun in the courtyard then getting lost in the corn, go figure!! All in all in turned out to be a great day and I'm so glad we decided to go!!

Happy Birthday Cody and Kaden

Cody turned 12 on Oct. 2 and had a party with his friends on the 3rd. Les took them to Toad's Fun Zone and did go carts, miniature golf, and laser tag and then came back to our house for pizza and cake and ice cream. They all had a lot of fun.

On Oct. 5 Kaden turned 4 and we had our families come over for cake and ice cream to celebrate for both of them.

My kids are growing up so fast!! I really think we should be able to stop them at a certain age. I'm so not ready for the teenage years and yet they'll be here before I know it. Also, I love 4-year-olds. I would love it if Kaden could stay 4 forever!!!

Kenzie

Kenzie has now been tagged in Kiddo Tag, so here are 5 things you may or may not know about her:

1. She loves animals. It doesn't matter whether it's stuffed or live, she loves animals. She could care less about Barbies or dolls, she would much rather play with an animal.

2. She loves to dance! She has been taking dance for 6 years now. She is on the competition team at Syracuse Dance Academy and goes to dance three times a week. She is also in a tumbling class once a week.

3. She is very creative. She loves to draw pictures, write stories, and make up songs or poems. She enjoys writing in her journal as much as possible.

4. She loves little kids. She is so good about playing with her younger brother and sister. She loves to teach them how to dance and they like to show off for us. She loves it when other little kids come over. She is going to be a great baby-sitter when she gets older!!!

5. She loves to talk. She always has a story to tell about something. Sometimes she gets so excited about something she's telling you she has a hard time getting all the words out.

There are so many things that I admire about Kenzie. She has a very loving personality and is always willing to help out. I love you Kenzie!!!

I'm not sure who else to tag, so anyone who hasn't done this for their kids, you've been tagged!!

The 8s

8 tv shows I love to watch:

Survivor
Dancing with the Stars
Lost
Fringe
Amazing Race
Bones (I'm a season behind)
Desperate Housewives
Samantha Who

8 favorite restaurants:

La Ferrovia
Mimi's
Macaroni Grill
La Choi (new favorite, I've only been there once)
Gandolfo's
Applebee's
Red Robin
Olive Garden

8 things that happened yesterday:

Fixed waffles for breakfast
Watched conference
Baked 2 cakes
Laid around being lazy
Fixed dinner
Had a birthday party for Cody and Kaden
Visited with family members at the party
Watched Desperate Housewives

8 things I'm looking forward to:

Getting my nails done this week
Halloween
Possibly a weekend trip with Les for our birthdays
Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's
Kids going off track (I'm not a morning person)
Christmas
Trip to Disneyland
Spring (yeah I know it's not even winter yet, but I hate being cold)

8 things on my wish list

Losing weight
Getting food storage
Being more patient
Going on a cruise someday
Buying new clothes (once I lose weight)
Getting caught up on housework
Getting a new calling in my ward
Getting more sleep

I tag:

Shawna
Linnell
Linda
Allison
Kellie
Cortney
Patrice
Kady

Cody

Cody got tagged in a game of "Kiddo Tag". How fun!! Now I'm supposed to tell 5 things about him that people may not know, so here it goes.

1. He's going to be a rock star!! He is taking electric guitar lessons right now and doing very well with them. He's got a great ear for music and catches on very easily.

2. He loves to read. Right now he is reading the 5th book in the Harry Potter series. When he reads before bed each night we have to be good about checking on him to make sure he doesn't stay up all night reading. He has a very hard time putting a book down. Hmmm....I wonder where he gets that from? :)

3. He is the incessant gatherer of useless information!! Whenever he gets interested in something he has to find out everything there is to know about it. Past obsessions have included Mario, Weird Al, and now his most recent obsession is Bucket Head. For those of you who don't know, Buckethead is an electric guitar player who once played in Guns N Roses. I'm sure one day he will be very good at Jeopardy with all his useless trivia!!

4. He is very sensitive. He becomes quite emotional when watching something sad on tv. He also hates yelling and fighting. I think this is a very admirable trait for a young man!!

5. He is very creative. He has always enjoyed building things, drawing things, and trying to figure out how things work. He's very artistic, which is something I am definitely not. He definitely gets this from Les!!

Of course, there are many more things that I could write about Cody. He's a great kid!! He's a great big brother and a great helper around the house!! So Cody, if you read this, I love you!!!

So, now I tag:
Shaylee G.
Maggie H.
Madelyn J.
Dax S.
Maximum Powers

A party, a flood, a trip, and peaches!!!

We have had ourselves a crazy couple of weeks. First of all, the party!!! We had a cousin party at our house with all my Peterson cousins. It was a ton of fun. We had dinner and played games. This was the third party we had together and we are trying to make it a more regular occurrence.

Next, the flood. Last week our basement flooded two days before we were supposed to leave on vacation. We had to rip out the carpet pad in Cody and Kenzie's rooms and part of my office, but we were able to save the carpet, thank goodness!!! We draped the carpet over tables and chairs while we were gone to dry it out. We got the carpet and pad relaid yesterday and can now move the kids back in and try to get our house back to normal!!

And now the trip!!!




We took a camping trip to Yellowstone. It was tons of fun!! This was our first big camping trip on our own. We stayed at Madison Campground inside the park. We took bike rides, long walks around the many geysers, saw an IMAX movie, saw bears and wolves at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, and saw lots of elk and buffalo inside the park. We had a great time!

And last, but not least, the peaches. We have three peach trees in our backyard and it was time to pick them as soon as we got home from our trip. We canned them on Monday and ended up with 37 quarts and 9 pints and we still have 2 boxes of peaches left. Next up is the pears!! Yum ,yum!!!

First day of preschool

Last week Kaden had his first day of preschool. I can't believe he's already going to school. He looked so handsome on his first day. We went to the store and he picked out a new outfit for the first day and a new backpack that had Spongebob on it. He had a great time at school and he wishes he had school more than two days a week. Funny how they go from wanting to go to school all the time to hating it in just a few short years. Oh well, I hope he enjoys it while he can!!!

Copyright infringement

As I was catching up on the news this morning (I read all the news online because I don't have time to watch the nightly news) I saw a headline about Stephanie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series. Since I love everything Twilight, I had to check it out. It turns out that one of the transcripts of her novel Midnight Sun got leaked on the internet by a trusted friend and she is now so upset by it that she will not finish the book and has instead posted the transcript on her website. I was very upset after reading this, first of all because I was really looking forward to this book. For those of you who don't know, Midnight Sun is the retelling of the story of Twilight, but from Edwards point of view. She has had the first chapter posted on her website for quite some time and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was really looking forward to the whole book.

The other part that upsets me is that it seems we as a society have started to condone stealing. How many of us have downloaded a song for free, copied a friend's DVD or CD, or found something online way before it was supposed to be released and watched, read, or listened to it anyway? I think we forget that these things are copyrighted and we are taking money away from the artists each time we do it. I know the usual argument is how everything is just so expensive and these people are making so much money that it's not really going to hurt them, but that's not really the point. I have to admit that I used to have the same opinion until my husband taught a lesson on honesty at church which really changed his mind and mine. It's not always about the money we spend or the the amount of money the other person is making, it's about being honest with your fellow man.

Anyway, I haven't decided if I'm going to read the transcript that she has posted on her website as it is not the finished product and it's not how she intended it to be released. As much as I want to read the story, I also feel badly for how this turned out for her. My biggest hope is that she will decide to finish it eventually for herself and for her fans.

Frontrunner and Gateway

Last Friday I took the kids down to Salt Lake on the Frontrunner train. We barely missed the 12:30 train, so we had to wait at the platform for the 1:00 train. The kids were pretty nervous while we waited because they didn't know what to expect. They really enjoyed the train ride and they think that is how we should go to Salt Lake all the time. It was nice not dealing with the traffic, but next time I will definitely not take a big stroller, that was a pain to have to deal with!!

When we got to Salt Lake, we took Trax over to Discovery Gateway where the kids had a ton of fun!! We felt like we had the place to ourselves because it was so empty. It was nice to be able to wander from exhibit to exhibit without worrying about a big crowd. I've decided year-round school is kind of nice that way!!

The kids playing "store".

Cody climbing the rock wall, go Cody go!!

The kids playing house. They fed me all sorts of interesting food, like a bell pepper in a bowl.
Yum, yum!!

"Tonight on KSL 5 news..." Cody had fun pretending to be a news anchor. Brooklyn just wanted to show off for the camera.

This is Brooklyn trying to take a picture of herself. She loves the camera and wanted to take a picture of everything!!

After Discover Gateway, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, which I had never been to before and I really liked it!! Then we went over the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got some sweets for the ride home. I love their caramel apples, I got a Snickers apple this time and it was delicious!! We caught the 5:55 train home, which was pretty crowded with all the business people heading home, but we got there in plenty of time to get a great seat!!

Les was supposed to join us for dinner, but he ended up having to go rescue his parents from Bridger Lake because their car broke down and the tow company wouldn't tow their trailer home for them, so he went and picked it up for them. He's such a great guy!!!

Camping in Vernal

We went to Vernal over Labor Day weekend with my parents, my brother Jarrod and his family and our niece Amaya. We had a lot of fun!! Below are just a sampling of the many pictures we took while we were there. It was so much fun to get in a family camping trip this year.




Here's Kenzie with her fish that she caught.

Kaden loved fishing while we were there!! He even caught a fish, way to go Kaden!!

Cody turned out to be quite the fisherman. He even ate his fish for breakfast!!

We went to the Dinosaur Museum in Vernal while we were there
Here are Cody and Brooklyn with their new friend.
Brooklyn was striking the cutest poses with her little purse.

Watch out Cody, you're going to get eaten!!!
Les likes to be creative with the picture-taking.

The kids all had a lot of fun posing with the dinosaurs.

Brooklyn and Les playing in the water. We stayed right by Steinaker Reservoir.
The kids all had a lot of fun splashing around in the water.

My dad makes the best pancakes ever!!! Especially up camping.

Les and Brooklyn chillin' after a long day.

Kenzie, Shaylee, and Amaya playing Ladder Golf. The kids had a lot of fun with that game while at camp!! Thanks Grandma for bringing it!!

Riding on flat tires is hard :)

So apparently it's a good idea to check the tire pressure on your tires once in a while. As I posted earlier, I've been trying to ride my bike for exercise. Well, instead of getting easier, it was getting harder and harder to finish my ride every morning. Les was fixing the tires on the kids bikes so I asked him to check my tires as well just to make sure. The tires ended up needing quite a bit of air even though they didn't look flat at all. Well, my next bike ride was a breeze compared to the last one. Hills that were once a chore were so much easier. I got done with my regular route 15 minutes faster!! So, lesson learned, I need to check the pressure more often. Who knew that could make such a difference :)

Kaden wants earrings

Or at least he thought he did. This morning as he was walking in front of me I noticed something shiny in his ear that just didn't look right. On closer inspection, I saw that he had the back of an earring lodged into his ear. My first thought was how am I going to get that out. I grabbed the tweezers, but after looking at it again I decided there really wasn't anything to grab onto and I didn't want to hurt him or push it in further, so I called the doctor's office to get him in first thing. Thankfully WeeCare just opened a new office in Syracuse and they had a wide open schedule. So we got dressed real quick and headed over. He was really good as the doctor looked at his ear and he sat perfectly still as the doctor scooped it out with his cool little tool. What a relief!!! The doctor said he didn't do any damage and that he would be fine. I guess I'm lucky he found one of the bigger earring backs that are really rounded to stick in his ear instead of one of the sharper and smaller ones. So, there was my excitement for the day. Hopefully he has decided that sticking things in his ears is not a good thing!!

Busy, but fun weekend!!

Instead of sitting at home this weekend like we usually do, we finally got out and had some fun.

On Friday we took the kids to see Wall-E. The movie was pretty cute and the kids really enjoyed it. We did have to take quite a few bathroom breaks though. We may have to forget the soda next time!! On Friday night I went to play Bunco and our nephew also stayed the night.

On Saturday, Les was in the yard all day and I was doing some housework, not that you can tell now of course. Our niece came over to spend the night with us and that night we went to Burger Stop for some takeout and took it to Layton Park for a picnic. We had a great time together as a family. We really do need to get out more!!

Breaking Dawn

So I just finished reading Breaking Dawn on Saturday. I have avoided everything Twilight related since the book came out because I didn't want to get spoiled, so I won't spoil anything here just in case you haven't read it yet, but I did want to give my opinion on it.

I really liked the book. Everything that I wanted to happen in the book happened. Sure, there were slow parts, and sure things were a little unrealistic, but hey...it's fiction, what do you expect? I think that as an ending to the series I couldn't have asked for anything better.

I have read some reviews on Amazon that have not been so great. Honestly, I don't see how you cannot like the book if you liked the other three.

So I want to know...Have you read it? Are you reading it now or going to start? Did you like it? Comment away!!!

Brooklyn the makeup artist

The other day while I was getting some work done, my sweet little Brooklyn decided to give herself a makeover. In the span of about 5 minutes she was able to get into my makeup and put lipstick all over her face, hands, feet, and stomach. Fortunately for me, she didn't get it anywhere else in the house. Right now the charger for our digital camera is lost, so I had to take this picture with my phone, otherwise I would have taken more pictures. The worst part about the lipstick mess is that the lipstick is the kind that only comes off with makeup remover and a bit of scrubbing. She's very ticklish and was laughing like crazy when I was washing her feet and hands, but once I got to the face she wasn't very happy about it. Hopefully that will deter her from doing it again, but I doubt it!!

My feeble attempts at exercise

Recently I have been trying to get some exercise in as I really want to get in shape now that we're done having kids, because of course being pregnant is the only reason I've gained weight since we've been married :) I've tried so many different things over the years that I feel like I'm becoming somewhat of an exercise genius, or maybe just a sucker that will try the next new and amazing weight loss solution. So my latest thing is riding my bike in the mornings. This has definitely been the most cost effective thing that I've tried as I inherited my mom's old bike, you know, the kind that has the huge seat that looks so comfortable. Well, can i just say that my butt is killing me!!! Who knew that adding several pounds in the butt region could affect the comfort of a bike seat, well, it does. Remember as a kid when you would go out for a bike ride just for fun and you never got tired and it was the easiest thing in the world to do? My how a few years and a few pounds can change that!!! It's so unsettling to see how out of shape I am. So here's to my effort at weight loss this time around and hopefully it's something I can stick to until it starts to snow, then who knows what I will come up, but I'm sure the many infomercials can help me decide :)

TIme to start

So, I'm new to this blogging thing, but I have really enjoyed reading other people's blogs, so here I go with mine.

I guess I'll start by introducing our family. Les and I met while in high school and got married a couple months after graduation. We were blessed with our first son, Cody, a couple months later. Since then, we have had three more kids, McKenzie, Kaden, and Brooklyn. They are the joy of our lives and keep us quite busy. Les and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary in a couple weeks.

We live in Syracuse, Utah. We just moved last year and have really enjoyed our new home.

I look forward to sharing the funny stories about our kids and maybe some random thoughts from me.