"Painting With Mud" by Liam and Logan

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that I let the boys outside. They do a good job staying in the backyard without constant supervision so I was inside trying to get a few things done. I keep checking on them every few minutes to see what they were doing. They jumped on the trampoline they played on the playground, but that must have gotten boring because the next time I check on them they are digging in the mud and then they are using that mud to decorate the retaining wall.Hard at work!
Look how pretty mom!

Logan's toes are muddy.

Liam is still adding more mud.

Showing off the artwork.

Valentine's Celebrations

We had lots of fun Valentine's Celebrations.

One of my favorite parts of Valentine's Day is making valentines with the kids. Jed thinks that we are insane, but we have so much fun doing this activity together.

Hannah, Jaeden, Annika and I made these Iloves. They did almost everything except I cut out the screens and the wheels. I was very impressed at how hard they all worked, especially since we made 80 of them all together.



I made these cute valentine's for Liam and Logan to take to playgroup. The tags say "Bear Hugs from Liam and Logan."

It is very rare that my mom has the chance to be here on a school day, so her and I braved school food and ate lunch with all three children. No we did not eat three meals just sat with all three kids while eating our one meal. I'm sure glad they eat back to back and even then that lunch room is very loud. Grandma Cheryl and Annika

Hannah and Grandma Cheryl

Grandma Cheryl and Jaeden.

After lunch we went home and relaxed and hung out with Liam and Logan. When it was time for the kid's parties at school we went back to take part in the festivities.

Hannh opening some Valentines from her classmates.

One of Jaeden's classmates made each kid's initials from pixos. Such a cute idea.

We spent the most time in Annika's classroom, because our help was more needed here. Here Annika is getting some Valentines from her school bus shaped holder. They were definately having fun, so much fun playing musical chairs that one girl ended up bleeding.

Friday night we braved the snowy roads, took advantage of having a babysitter (thank you Katherine), took the older three and out to eat teppanyaki at Pei's. We had taken them probably 3 1/2 years ago and Annika was afraid she was going to get lit on fire. She's older now and everyone enjoyed themselves and we all ate too much good food.

Valentine's Day was pretty laid back as we had already celebrated. All the kids and Jed went out to play in the snow. They made some great snowboarding and sledding paths in the backyard. We enjoyed having grandma here to share our Valentine's Celebrations with her.

January Update

I know it's been a long time so here is it what we have been doing for the last month.

We went to the Children's Museum on a No School day. This was day number 6 off from school. It was snowy, then very, very cold, and then 2 inservice days.

Annika showing off her climbing skills.

Jaeden and Hannah trying to build paths and beat the clock.

Liam and Logan climbing. I know it's a little blurry. They were moving so fast I couldn't get a good picture.

Annika, Logan and Liam helping Daddy making a Peterson family recipe. It looks like Liam was drinking milk more than stirring.

The final product. Yum, Popeye Pancakes.

Popeye Pancakes
5-7 eggs (1 cup)
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
Blend together untill foamy. While blending, put 4-5 tablespoons of butter in 9 x 9 or 9 in. pie plate (glass works best). Melt in oven. Then pour in batter once butter has coated pan. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes.

First Time Playing in the Snow

We have never let the boys go outside and in the snow before for many reasons; it takes a long time to get them ready, someone has to be outside with them, it's too cold, we don't have two pairs of boots in the same size, we don't have two pairs of snowpants in the same size, the list goes on and one. Well on Saturday I finally got around to buying another pair of boots. We dressed them all up (yes it took forever) and the girls went out and played with them outside.

The boys all dressed and ready to go outside.

Liam had a little trouble staying on his feet. He reminded me of the younger brother on "The Christmas Story" is was very cute.

Logan was very excited to go and outside and wasn't really interested in letting me take a picture. This is the best one the other ones were all blurry because he was running to the door.

The boys first experience playing in the snow.

Jed and the kids (minus Jaeden).

In the upper left is our nice neighbor across the street snowblowing the snow left by the snowplow.

On top of the snowpile at the end of the driveway. They had fun climbing up and sliding down.

The boys playing with shovels and buckets in the snow.

Snot Happens! This wasn't the only time Liam had streams of snot coming from is nose, but it was definately the worst.

Jed has been trying to convince me to buy a snowblower since we moved into our house. He had finally convinced me and then decided that buying shovels and using the manpower of the kids would save us from buying one. Why have kids if you can't put them to work.

Logan and Liam thought that shoveling was fun. Liam actually moved a little snow, Logan just had fun carrying the shovel around and trying to shovel.

Logan
&

Liam

The boys greatly enjoyed their first experience playing in the snow. They stayed out for almost an hour, only coming in after Annika came in with a very, very cold and red foot and we decided it was time for everyone to come in.

Within a few minutes of Logan coming in he quickly passed out on the coach while sitting up watching TV it was so cute. I guess he was worn out from all that playing.

One of Liam's feet got really cold because his boot kept falling off so Jed was trying to warm it up and make him feel better. Well he must have made him comfortable because he quickly got sleepy on Jed's lap.

I laid Liam down and moved Logan into a more comfortable position so they could take a little nap on the couch while everyone else enjoyed some hot chocolate. A good ending to a fun time.

Another Snow Day

After the third round of snow in just a few days the kids, Jed & I have a snow day today. The kids haven't had a full day of school yet this week and Friday and next Monday are professional development days for the teachers which means no school for the kids again. I very much love my kids, but there is a reason I send them to school. Some time away from them makes me love them even more and prevents me from strangeling them when they get on my nerves. Luckily the older three all got invited to play at neighbors houses for a few hours and I have reclaimed my computer from them playing Webkinz. I hope all of you are warm and safe. Those of us here in eastern Iowa are looking forward to sub-zero temperatures (that's without the wind chill).

Too Busy To Post!

I can't seem to find the time to post betweeen snow days, buying, making, and wrapping Christmas presents and volunteering at the kid's school, but for some reason Jed has lots of time to blog so I'm going to refer you to his blog to see what our family has been up to in the last few weeks. His blog is The Universe According to the Original Iowa Sea Captain (don't ask I don't know why he is so crazy, but I still love him) click on the link to see us in action http://iowaseacaptain.blogspot.com/. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season.

thepetersonswildride

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Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. What a great time!!! After giving our house a much needed cleaning we were excited to have at our place Jed's parents, Mac and Janice, his sister Gina, her husband Jeff, and their five children: Zach, Megan, Nathan, Tyler and Trevor (yes, three year old twin boys!), Jed's sister Cara, and his sister Jenny and her guy Ben. 19 people, including us! We had a great time cooking the meal, which in my opinion is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, and stuffed our faces the rest of the day. Jaeden gave the Thanksiving meal prayer, and he did a fantastic job of it. I have to say I thought my mashed potatoes and cornbread casserole were fantastic! I made a 20 pound turkey and despite everyone's best effort (well, besides Gina who just didn't help out much with the bird at all :), we still a week later have quite a lot of it left! We had pie, Turkey cookies (see the picture below!), and frog eye salad galore.

Friday was spent with people shoping (Gina and Janice left before 4, Cara and I around 5). This was my first foray into Black Friday Madness and I'm not convinced that I will do it again. Although I did get myself a new scrapbooking cutter at a fantastic price. Hannah and Megan also spent most of their day playing guitar hero IIi on the Wii and almost made it through the entire co-op series. What a bunch of rock goddessess! Anyway, I made Chili for supper and then we played Scatergories. It was tons of fun! Then everyone who had gotten up early passed out and we called it a night!

Saturday everyone else left in the morning for Ames and then drove to Des Moines to see the Nutcracker. From what I heard they had a great time. Of course that night they all went to Taco Time for supper. Jed got a turkey and stuffing crisp burrito that you dipped in gravy. Strange, but he said it was tasty!

The girls helping peel potatoes with some pointers from Grandma. I don't mind doing it, but it sure went faster with all their help and I must say the mashed potatoes turned out fantastic all eight pounds of them!

Ten of the thirteen grandchildren gathered to give thanks by eating a lot of food! This is (from the top) Liam and Logan, Nathan, Jaeden, Zachery, Annika, Megan, Tyler, Hannah and Trevor)
The buddies who look here like they are very much enjoying their food only made it a few more minutes before wanting out of the high chairs.

Hannah. If you look carefully, you'll see Braces. She got braces on her front four teeth the day before Thanksgiving. They didn't hurt much, she said, and she did get to put black and orange bands on them, which are her school colors.
Jenny with her amazing plate of food. She did such a great job of separating her food that I used her technique when I filled my plate. Later we ate Turkey cookies made by some Kirkwood students not me.

Annika getting ready to do Dance Dance Revolution
Hannah and Megan setting up Dance Dance Revolution.
Hannah and Megan rocking out! They had so much fun together. I can imagine them starting up a band in high school and taking the world by storm.
Logan also wanted to be a Rock God. I think he pulled it off!
Logan and I watching the girls rock out!
Cyber shoping can effect even the best of us. Right Ben? Ben? Ben? Snap out of it, Ben!
As Jed was leaving to go to Ames Annika was ready to go. She found this walkman and listened to CD's almost the entire weekend. She even had the headphones on while brushing her teeth. She also wants a car for christmas. Did she somehow turn 16 without us realizing it?

I have to say I wasn't sure I would survive hosting Thanksgiving for that many people, but I did and I enjoyed it. Maybe next time I will volunteer to do it instead of Jenny volunteering for me. Love ya Jenny!

Halloween

I know Halloween was weeks ago, but school stuff has finally slowed down for the time being and I have time for a post. The weather for Halloween was record setting. I actually thought the boys might be too warm in these farmer outfits. It was beautifull no coats, hats or mittens and we didn't blow away like last year. I was so nice we went to all but 4 house in our development and that's only because it was a long walk to those houses.

Liam and Logan are dressed as farmers. I stole this idea from my sister-in-law who did this with her twins one year. I figured it would be the last year I could keep them contained in one place. Next year they definately won't want to sit in the wagon or the stroller.

Annika wanted to be a cheerleader which was fine with me since it only involved getting her some pom poms. Jaeden was a baseball player, sports is his new obsession. Hannah was Julie an American Girl. Her and her friends from school picked American girl dolls to dress up as.

October Update

Sorry long time no post. I should have known that I didn't really have the time to keep up in the blogging world. October has been a great month. Jaeden turned 8 on the 7th and got baptized on the 11th. Then all seven of us drove out to Utah for business and pleasure. Jed presented at a conference and the kids and I got to play and have lots of fun. Hannah kept saying "this isn't Iowa." Yes the mountains are beautiful, but I'm glad to be home in my own bed. Now it's back to the grind and playing catch up at work and in my ASL class.