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.