boys and a girl: 2008

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Let it SNOW!!!

Only in Utah would you see something like this! Notice his shorts!! Even Gregg who wears shorts probably 300 days of the 365 days a year wore pants and a coat to blow the huge snow storm we had this past weekend! But our neighbor is hilarious! We enjoyed getting a shot of this.

But aside from the snow blowing we had a blast playing in the snow. Our other neighbor got out his 4 wheeler and took the boys sledding around the streets (that didn't get plowed for 2 days!). They looked like they were having so much fun and I just couldn't help myself. I joined in. I did that with my very good friend Cameron growing up all winter. They had 3 wheelers and 4 wheelers and pulled us around on tubes all winter. (Such good memories! I miss my good friend!)

Hopefully the boys can have as good of memories as I did. They braved the cold and snow with me!

On a side note. The boys were just fine. They didn't get hurt. I am sure this is probably not legal and I know it can be pretty unsafe, but they still had fun and Jon our neighbor was really easy on them. Me on the other hand I guess I am not as young as I want to be! I was bruised from head to toe! I had a hard time sleeping that night because my ribs were so bruised. My shins and hips are pretty banged up too, but man! I will still do it again if he gets it out this weekend with the new storm! WOOHOO!

Christmas Morning from Santa

Santa was good to us this year! Man, I thought my boys deserved some coal! But I guess I was wrong. The boys had a ball!

Some of their favorites were Jaxon's trade federation battle tank and clone wars game for the wii.
Kaden's favorites were the clone wars game for the leapster and his digital camera!
Zeke was really easy to please with Thomas stuff and a race track!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes indeed this has been the most wonderful time of the year! I love getting together with family and just hanging out! This year we were lucky enough to host Gregg's side of the family on Christmas Eve and my side of the family on Christmas day!

It was so much fun! I am so lucky to have Gregg to help out so much. He really did. If it weren't for him I think I would have been a basket case! He really helped. I made 15 dozen rolls, a turkey and 2 hams! Along with the plethora of before mentioned candies and goodies!

But my family are such health nuts they hardly ate any of the chocolate fountain and candy. Gregg's family ate as much as I thought should have been eaten (and some of the candy walked off the plates at the end!--which was so much appreciated!).

All in all, it was such a good time to just relax and enjoy each others company. I really do love to just catch up with each other and keep in touch. Thanks so much for coming over and hanging out and spending your Christmas with us! We love you all!

Stop the insanity!!! PLEASE!

Oh my goodness this year was crazy. I baked and cooked and baked and cooked straight for about 2 weeks! I love another one of my traditions I have had since I was little of making Christmas Candy. This tradition has been to make English toffee, peanut clusters, and butterscotch pretzels.

As a kid one of my good friends Diana Francis' mom always made home made caramels. They would give us a cup of them every Christmas. I would usually sneak the cup away and devour the whole cup before anyone else got any. I later added that to my yearly tradition.

And another one has been to make Rocky Road Popcorn. This delicious popcorn goody consists of a twist on caramel popcorn mixed with white chocolate, peanuts and marshmallows drizzled with milk and dark chocolate (could there be anything else better?).

How could I forget my last tackle? This year I finally found a fudge recipe that was to die for!! Gregg is quite the fudge fan. In fact every year he would get his own special pan of it from one of his friends mom. So I had quite a lot to live up to. I have tried to make fudge about 5 times to no avail! This year my sister Leslie gave me one of her in-law family recipes and it won!! Oh my gosh it was so so good. It was so good in fact we all ate 3 lbs of fudge in about 3 days!!! I made another batch with nuts for Gregg!

So that was my stint on candy this year and boy was it STUPID! Why do that to yourself? I have no idea. I also made the mistake of not letting anyone snack on the candy before Christmas and now on the 28th of December I still have a TON left! Oh it so has to be gone by next weekend!!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve every year we have a fun tradition. We always put our family Gingerbread house together. For the first couple of years Gregg was a little bit of a grump about it. But after he realized how much fun the kids had with it he totally took over and had fun with us. He likes to take command and be our family contractor!
This year we took a change to the roof. We added the boys favorite cereal...Cinnamon toast crunch.
Kaden and Zeke both had a ball....
the end result was so cute....I love our house that love builds!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Temple Square

Last weekend we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with my birth-son Tyson. He is such a great kid. He is now 14 (almost 15!). He is part of a great family. My boys love to hang out with him and miss the short time we have while we are together. He is a great basketball player and we are planning on going to watch him play. We went to see the lights at Temple Square. We went a 'little' early. We had quite an agenda we had to attend to. So as you can see the lights were not even on for the first 15 minutes we were there. But that ended up okay. We got a few great shots with the beautiful sunset. It was only in the teens that night and we were a bit frozen, so after the lights came on we headed out.

We finished off the evening devouring yummy Mtn. Mike's Pizza and went bowling. I won't embarrass Tyson and reveal his score (which only ended up 2 less than mine!), but Kaden won all of us!! He thinks he is quite the little Bowler and wants to play professional?! It is really comical to watch I don't know how he ended up with the strikes and spares he got because he just chucks the ball off the railing and the ball bounces from rail to rail the whole way down! In Tyson's defense I don't think he had been bowling for a long, long time. We came back to our house and played a mean game of arcade basketball (one of which he needed to reedeem himself on as well) and toasted Gregg's record. He got 102 points in 1 minute. Gregg had previously held the record at 99 (although no one was around to verify this!).

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Monday, December 15, 2008

Never make a bet with this guy!

If there is only one thing I have learned in the 13 1/2 years being married to Gregg. Never make a bet with him. Actually I say that then I bet him all the time thinking one time I will win. Well, it has taken me that long, but Jaxon at the ripe old age of 8 already won his Dad in a bet. What did he win? Well, only everyone's favorite cookie....homemade Oreo cookies!! YUMMY!

Well in mine and Gregg's defense we really did not think we would loose on this one. If you have read some of my other posts, you know how Jaxon has become quite the story teller lately. Well one night we were talking to Kaden and trying to drill into him vowels and what they are used for. You all know the little rhyme A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y. Well Jaxon kept pipping in saying and sometimes W. Finally we tried to stop him. I thought he was just trying to confuse Kaden, a frequent occurrence. To make a long story short. Yes, his teacher taught him sometimes W?! Now I know I went to Granger High and all but I was never taught that. But yes, we should have done our homework before the bet. If you google it is does say it is a semi-vowel much like Y. Now the only word his teacher could come back and have Jaxon give us was 'snow'. And there is some other weird word that is not even an english word. However, it is still being taught in the school as a semi-vowel.....
We all got to enjoy the cookies though so it wasn't that bad, for me anyway. But for Gregg he did specify to Jaxon to mark his word that that doesn't happen very often. He is such a brat. It is true, I will be surprised if Jaxon wins another one anytime soon. Although, Jaxon is so much like his Dad it may happen more than Gregg would like to hope for. Me on the other hand, I will just keep betting and loosing, hoping for the one day I will win!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

In honor of my boys being off track.......

The Mom Song from Northland Video on Vimeo.

Man I love being MOM!!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Jaxon funny

I got the following email from Jaxon's teacher tonight. Normally parents would be afraid of an email from your 8 year old's teacher. Not this time!

Carrie,

I had to share the tall tale Jaxon told me today.

He shared how he and his dad were Hawaiian and living in Hawaii when they went into a restaurant and met you for the first time. They didn't understand the language you spoke because they were from Hawaii. Then you met them a second time (in the restaurant) and you taught his dad how to speak your language by giving him lots of tests. Then you decided to move to Utah and now you no longer do the Hawaiian traditions, you just do the Utah ones.

He almost had me believing it at first, but the more details he added, the more humorous it became. I told him he had a good imagination and he should write it as a story.

Enjoy,
SB

He takes after his dad SO MUCH!!!

I NEVER THOUGHT

I would be THAT MOM!!!
Tonight I found myself so completely embarrassed at the grocery store. I never thought I would be that mom that walked out of the grocery store with 2 CARTS FULL OF GROCERIES! Oh my goodness, I am so completely embarrassed. I do have to realize I have 4 very hungry and growing boys at home and that is what it is probably going to be like but maybe I should start grocery shopping weekly. That was humiliating! And to make things worse....you know when you get to the cashier and she smiles and says, 'did you find everything you needed?'. Nope, not tonight! She smiled and said 'well I guess you found all you needed, right?'
Oh what joys to come. I know it is only going to get worse when they are teenagers!!! YIKES!

We are thankful

We are thankful this year for so many things. We both were so bothered with the fact Christmas music started the day after Halloween, be decided to make sure we didn't miss making sure to count our blessings and let each other know what and whom we are thankful.

It worked out really good. I liked to pass by in the hall and glance at the cute things the boys thought of to be thankful for here are a few(we tried to do one every day in November):

Jaxon - food, dentists/doctors (he didn't have a cavity at his visit or I am sure he would not have put that one down!), cousins, house, community, indians, police, dad, mom, clothes, transportation, roads, pilgrims, firemen.....

Kaden - trees, bible, windows, school, trucks, mom, books, songs, computers, Tyson, Zeke, Dad, Jaxon, cups, cousins, school, thanksgiving, indians, Book of Mormon...

Monday, December 1, 2008

BLACK FRIDAY!!

Woo Hoo! What fun! Really, I don't know why it is fun other than the fact I get to spend the whole morning with ALL my sisters this year. Mandy was in town this year and she is always so much fun to shop with. Usually because she is the one spending so much money! (love you Mandy!) This year it was pretty even. We were not in as big of a hurry as we have been in the past (we have been doing this for at least 10-11 years) and because of that I lost out on a few deals I was hoping for, but it was still a blast and we ended up scoring on Amazon anyway.
For those of you who don't brave the Black Friday mayhem let me just tell you it takes a lot of planning.....

But after the meticulous planning where, what and who it pays off in the end! We saved $290 this year! It is worth waking up at 4:00 am for that! - am I cheap!?

A scary sight - And it is not even Halloween!

Gregg was a good boy and put the lights up on the house. I wanted everyone to see how stressful it is for me to sit at the bottom and watch this horrifying sight, I swear he was going to fall.

It looks beautiful, even though I know you did it for the boys and not for me!! Thanks!

Wow How the time flies!!!

I can't believe it is already December. I only blogged two little things in November. I guess that is how it goes when you are preoccupied with things. I have been spending almost every spare minute getting our Christmas village up and ready with Gregg. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. We still need to add a few finishing touches (it hasn't even snowed yet in the North Pole or in the City). So after that I am hoping we are done and can enjoy the work.
Gregg and I started this fetish last year. Gregg has always wanted a train under the Christmas tree. So last year when he mentioned it AGAIN for the upteenth time, I said okay get one BUT it has to be a Lionel. My dear old Grampa whom I miss dearly (but honestly believe he is still watching over me)had a whole bunch of Lionel trains. I think when he passed they ended up with my sister (lucky girl)! So anyway, Gregg and I decided on the Polar Express train. But then naturally we needed a North Pole village to go along with it. So it started from there. Gregg being the man he is doesn't do anything little. So he found and bought and found and bought. We went from one little house to a whopping 39 pieces to our village in 1 YEAR!!! No that was not cheap! Luckily he was a really good shopper and found deals. But it still hurt the pocket book a little.
So first we had to get the basics. I found this lady in CA that builds platforms for Dept 56 villages and fell in love with them. I wanted so badly to purchase one from her, but it would have cost $600! Me being the do-it-yourself er that I am I thought we can do it our self. We still have not found how to do resin (that was my favorite part of her platforms). If anyone knows and can give us a hint I would be so happy! It really makes the whole scene so much prettier.

I cut each block out separately then glued them to make it look like ice block walls.

We actually ended up taking this one out and building it again. The blocks were not stacked just right. It looked a little uneven.

The whole house has been completely a mess while we have been working on this! It drives me crazy!!!

Please notice the hard work Gregg specifically did. The shelf in the back has his favorite thing on it. The houses sit on top of a large tunnel for the train. And those houses spell out NORTH POLE! It is hard to see, but it was one of Gregg's favorite things.

Notice the large bare spot, left open for my beautiful resin pond one day. We actually attempted to do one on a scrap and it was not so good (twice I might add).

Our very busy city.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Baptism

Jaxon got baptized. It was again, one to remember, that is all I will say. And by the photo Gregg looks so happy....Jaxon was excited. Zeke, well he was just 'bubbling over' with excitement and I will just leave things at that.

He was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is such an amazing example to me. He really has a strong spirit and I hope it stays with him all his life. He is a good boy who tries his best to do just what he is supposed to. I am so proud of him and for the good example he is to me. We are working on finishing the Book of Mormon (we are almost finished), and if you know Jaxon he is just like his dad and has almost a photographic memory. Jaxon implied when we were done that was all we needed to do. I said nope when we are done we read it again then again and again. He said okay so when we read it 4 times we will have everything memorized and we won't need to read it again right? I said well no we need to keep reading it all the time because during different times in our life we learn different lessons when we read it. He thought for a minute and just rescinded his comment. I could see what was going on in his head (just like his dad) 'Yeah Whatever!'. We will see! He is still a great example and I know if I am teaching a lesson for FHE he will have all of the stories memorized to the point he could teach everyone in the family what the story was about and what we learn from it.

Sad little halloween

So this Halloween was not much to be had. And it is apparent due to my week delay in getting it posted.

We had quite a lot of things going on and there were a lot of shall we say issues this year?! So needless to say we did not get the whole Star Wars theme thing going and I guess that was okay. But to make things worse this is the first year I have been a Mom of two children in Elementary school. I did the whole room mother thing for BOTH classes. While this kept me quite preoccupied (I was at school the entire day!!--with Zeke!) I did not do the good mom thing and get any pictures as I should have. Jaxon stopped in the Halloween parade this year enough to get a picture.....

He wanted to be a Football player. Kaden on the other hand let me get this......

That was all I was able to get during the waking hours!! I have been running like crazy the past couple of weeks and the only time I have felt like I have been able to sit back and think about things are when the kids are in bed.

So I got some other photos of random Halloween things.....
For Jaxon's class I was in charge of the craft. I love this and love trying to find new and different things to do for the class. This is what I found.

This was a larger version. I did smaller ones for the kids. They had fun with it. But surprisingly there were a lot of kids that did not like getting their fingers dirty (I thought it was only my weird boys who did not like having dirty hands).

Then of course there were the pumpkins.....I just love Halloween. Even though it went by so fast I was not able to get photos we had a ball from all of the parties at school to the cousin party and Nana & Papa's, I think it was one to remember!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Parts

by Ted Arnold

I just don't know what's going on
Or why it has to be.
But every day it's something worse.
What's happening to me?
I think it was three days ago
I first became aware--
That in my comb were caught a couple
Pieces of my hair.
I stared at them, amazed, and more
Than just a bit appalled
To think that I was only five
And starting to go bald!
Then later on (I don't recall
Exactly when it was)
I lifted up my shirt and found
This little piece of fuzz.
I stared at it, amazed, and wondered,
What's this all about?
But then I understood. It was
My stuffing coming out!
Next day when I was outside playing
With the water hose,
I saw that little bits of skin
Were peeling from my toes.
I stared at them, amazed, and then
I gave a little groan.
To think that pretty soon I might
Be peeled down to the bone.
Then yesterday, before my bath,
As I took off my clothes,
A chunk of something gray and wet
Fell right out of my nose.
I stared at it, amazed, and thought,
I should be feeling pain.
Well, wouldn't YOU if you just lost
A little piece of brain?
So now, today, I'm sitting here
Enjoying Dr. Seuss,
And suddenly I realize
A tooth is coming loose!
I wiggle it, amazed, dismayed,
Too horrified to speak.
Without my teeth, how can I eat?
Already I feel weak!
Now I'm really worried. I'm
As scared as I can be,
'Cause finally what's happening
Is very clear to see--
The glue that holds
Our Parts together
Isn't holding me!!!
And now I'm thinking to myself,
What's next in line to go?
Might be my ears; might be my eyeballs.
How's a kid to know?
One day I might be playing ball....
And have my arm fall off.
Or maybe I could lose my head
If suddenly I cough.
Quite soon I'll be in pieces in
A pile without a shape.
Thank goodness Dad keeps lots and lots
And lots of making tape.
WHAT?
You forgot:
To tell me teeth fall out?
And when they do, some brand-new teeth
Will soon begin to sprout?
My hair, my skin, and everything--
There's nothing I should fear?
So all of me is normal. WHEW!
That's really good to hear!
Then tell me, what's this yellow stuff
I got out of my ear?

Sorry it is so long, but I just love this book. Kaden lost his first two teeth this weekend and I thought of this book. If Gregg would have let me, I would be posting the gray hairs (6 to be exact) I found on his head and the lovely two in his goatee.!!

I also might add, Gregg was TOTALLY against this! He refuses to pull the boys loose teeth! It is all mean old me! So when I tried and tried to get at least one of these out for Kaden and Gregg wouldn't try. I called my Dad. He pulled the one. Then the next day Kaden called him and asked him to bring out his pliers and pull out the other one!!

Birthday a-go-go

So in one of my earlier posts I referred to the plethora of birthday parties we were going to have for Jaxon this year. Sunday was the Petersen party. One of the things I always try to do is make them a special birthday cake. I don't always get to it, but I really really try. I am sure it is because of the cool birthday cakes my Mom used to make me (I especially loved the princess cakes--you know the ones with the barbie in the middle and the flowing dress.....man I loved those cakes).

This year Jaxon wanted a football cake. It didn't work out as I had planned. I think it actually worked out better with all of the mistakes. I don't know, I was pleased. I think he was too!

So I will point out some of the really stupid things I did on this cake trying to make it cool, but that only the really dorky ones (like me) would notice. First the JDPU--is for Jaxon Drake Petersen University. Then if you notice the yardage only goes to '8' yards....I am guessing you can think why--I know isn't that stupid. As for the football, I actually baked that part of the cake in a bread pan and carved it. And of course Gregg actually contributed (I think because he saw how it was going and thought it was cool too). He made the goal posts out of straws!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Twilight Quiz

I used to love these in the 'Seventeen' magazine when I was younger. One of my friends I haven't talked to FOREVER had this on her blog so I of course being a huge fan of the Twilight books had to test it out.....

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Let me know who you are?!
Honestly....I always thought Bella was a pretty weak character, I don't really agree with this. I guess I would say I was like Bella in the 'New Moon' book. I am really bullet headed and I could totally see myself riding motorcycles like crazy. I hope I am not as clumsy as Bella though?! I do have a weak side too, I don't know, maybe it is right.....Does that mean I am NOT the loving Motherly type like Esme?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Scarecrow Festival

Last week (I am so behind in my posts) we went to the Scarecrow festival. The boys had a ball, all of them. It really was a fun time. We played for a couple hours on the blow up slides and fun houses, then played all of the little carnival games.

Zeke was really funny on this one. You are supposed to toss the ball and have it stick on the screen with numbers. But try after try he couldn't get it to stick so he walked up and put every ball right on the numbers..... Zeke also got his first experience in a toddler bounce house! Oh my gosh it was so funny. He had a ball and watching him try to jump was so cute. The funny thing is, he is now almost 21 months old and he doesn't really get the jumping thing. A mom put a 9 month old in there with him and he was jumping like a pro! so cute to see.

By the time we were done with that Jaxon spied the bungee jumping......oh what a mistake. It was 6:30 by then and I hadn't packed dinner for anyone just snacks. Luckily I was smart enough to pack jackets (except poor Gregg). Needless to say 2 hours later Jaxon got his bungee jumping and then we jetted home!

I just LOVE this time of year!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

He's 8!!!

Jaxon is getting so big so fast! He turned 8 this week and man, what can I say he is such a good kid. This year on his birthday it is a family party (thank goodness). He will be getting baptized shortly and that is when he will have his 3rd family celebration.

This year was a cool birthday though. He has been really excited to be a member of the scouting program (I have NO IDEA ANYTHING ABOUT IT!). So it just so happened this month was pack meeting on his BIRTHDAY! He totally wanted to go especially because they were doing a raingutter regatta. He made his boat the few weeks before the big day. It looked awesome......

He honestly did this....not all by himself mind you (there were a few parental touch ups). But he was really the envy of the entire pack. He felt so cool!

For those of you who know Gregg he is NOT a scout or the scouting type. So he is going to have to suck it up because Jaxon is all over this scouting thing!! Anyway Jaxon did great with the help of the straw (which ended up being used as a push tool in his little sneaky way!) he came in 3rd out of the whole pack. He really did great and had a ball! What a fun birthday for him.

I am so glad to have him as the oldest in the family. He is such a great big brother and so good to his younger brothers. He can be challenging at times but for the most part is the best boy I could ever ask for! I love you so much buddy, I hope you had a great day!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Are you CRAZY?!

I don't tout much of a skier, and now that we have a boat I really don't. But I just had to put this on to proove that yes, I love to ski and even on October 17th! I have ALWAYS been named the wimpy skier of the family! Always behind Terri and Mandy of course, but if I could stick my tongue out at you and say hey look at me I was actually skiing today! It was actually not too bad. The water however was frigid--TK didn't believe the temp gauge at 40 degrees?! I don't know it was pretty freaking cold though. I had to prove I am NOT the wimpiest skier of the family! I still have the ringing water burn in my head, so I can remember I crashed hard!

Oh it is so much fun! I LOVE IT!

Jaxon hasn't braved skiing or wakeboarding yet, but is TOTALLY LOVING the tube! He took his first spill today a few minutes after the photo. I don't know who was more scared Dad or Jaxon but Dad hurried over to Jaxon so fast TK's dry suit kept him dry when he was skiing but not Dad's rush to save Jaxon (who was frantically paddling his arms that he was sinking). Gregg went right through the HUGE waves he was making for Jaxon and drenched TK and Kaden in the front.....very comical!

Poor Kaden, with his non water proof cast he doesn't get to do much other than drive the boat with Dad, but he is just waiting for next year (I hope Gregg doesn't drag us out past November 12th when he gets it off?! YIKES!)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Why boys don't dance....

So I have really enjoyed watching my nieces and my friends videos of their little girls dancing. While this does not happen much at my house there are definitely other things in its place. I can't even get Zeke to do much dancing. Kaden shows us here why I firmly believe my husband can't dance either. You see I think boys just spend their time thinking how awesome they are and how cool they look when they can move and sound just like the super hero's they know and love so well! While this is a little difficult to explain the following solidifies my explaination above.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Don't Mess with this Kitty.....

Just browsing my pictures and found this one from forever ago. One of my good very missed friends in Vegas sent this to me of her awesome cat. In the cat's defense, she said, her little girl always harasses him and it was the least he could do. No harm done! PRICELESS!!