{ pedersen family }

I HEART FACES - SMILE!

2011-01-11T15:58:00.002-05:00

This is my first time posting to I Heart Faces. I thought it looked like a fun theme. Smiles! Since it's snowing outside and my kids are fighting inside, I had to get away somehow. And this image just makes me happy!

This was one of cute families that I got to photograph this fall. You probably can't tell that they were all growling right before I snapped this!

a new do

2010-09-14T20:49:00.001-04:00

For awhile now, Riley has been getting rather creative with her hair. As in cutting creative. None of it was so bad that it had to be dealt with until she tried to cut the rubber bands out of her hair. I was all for cutting it, but Cameron would always throw a mini tantrum about how much he liked her long hair, choppy or not. But I couldn't take it anymore. It got to the point of having a girl mullet and that just wasn't going to do. Usually I can trim it and be OK. But with it being long, I didn't want to mess it up, not that I couldn't have done worse than she had. So we went to a 'hair store' to get the grown up hair. (I took full advantage of her bad hair by not even combing it before we went. ha!)

the end!

do you like free stuff?

2010-09-03T06:30:00.002-04:00

A couple of months ago I started an Etsy shop selling headbands. Wanna see it? Go HERE.

It's been a fun little adventure and has certainly kept me busy. I just had my 100th order yesterday. That doesn't include all the custom orders I've gotten either. Like the one from some lady in Australia who ordered FORTY. 40!

Today, you can win something for free.

Go to a little etsy love and you can win 25 bucks worth of stuff!

Good luck!

Thanks to my friend Shelley for so many of the AMAZING pictures that she took for me!

Fun with Farklers on the Fourth

2010-07-04T23:18:00.005-04:00

Cameron was a good sport and decided to help me and try something fun with sparklers (Maren calls them farklers). It was hot outside and mosquitoes were everywhere. He thought, when I asked him, that I was going to be bossy about how I wanted to do it. By the end, he was having fun and we used up all the sparklers. We also found out, he is very bad at cursive writing. (Anerica!) Just kidding. He says that he hasn't written in cursive since the 3rd grade. Plus, it's a little bit hard to know what you are writing in the air.

I also wanted to get a shot of all the firefly's in the backyard. It's the coolest thing. It looks like a ton of twinkly lights all along the grass. But, Cameron was done by then. Oh well.

Can I get an "Ahhhhhhh"?

2010-06-29T13:56:00.005-04:00

This was our lesson for family home evening a few nights ago. It was Cameron's turn to be in charge of everything. He starts by saying something about wasting time and never getting it back and then he pulls out a dollar bill from his wallet and just starts ripping it to pieces. The kids eyes were all huge. They couldn't believe it.
Later that night, Cameron said that he thought that he made a pretty big impression on them with his lesson. I stopped to think about it, and I couldn't remember what he said because the whole time I was thinking 'there goes your Whopper Jr. for lunch tomorrow!'
Sorry, but I think you just lost a dollar!

today's lunch menu

2010-06-04T13:23:00.004-04:00

I don't know why, but this just makes me happy.

It was funny listening to them eating. Riley would say very excited that she found a "B". Maren would say, "That's not a B, it doesn't have a pokey bum." Then they would laugh really hard.

This is what's on tonight's family movie night menu.

we're havin a party

2010-05-17T08:41:00.000-04:00

for this girly! Today she turns 5! She's been on the count down since about 15 days ago. Every morning she would let us know how many more days till her birthday.

Riley is such a joy to have around. (except for when you are cleaning up her messes. which is daily!) She has the best laugh around and has the best twinkly eyes ever!

She can't wait for her party. We are going to be having a little chef's party. All her idea. Makes me totally nervous to have a bunch of 5 year olds donned with extreme mess making equipment, but we're going with it. There will be personal pizza making, cupcake decorating, pretzel dipping and a few games thrown in. She can't wait.

We love you Riley! We are so so so so so so so so soooo blessed to have you!

happy valentine's!

2010-02-14T16:57:00.004-05:00

These were what the kids handed out for their Valentine's this year. So much more fun than the same kind that I used to give out when I was a kid. You'd think with how much time that has gone by, someone would think of something better to do. We've gotten pretty good at making our own every year. So this was this years.

My favorite was when Zack was in Kindergarten, he was 5. We were making his Valentine's. We had some bags and a piece of paper at the top and some ric-rac to tie it all off. They were looking really cute and Zack said, very sure of himself, "The lady's are gonna love these." We still use that line quite often around our house. It was pretty funny.

my little Coleman

2010-02-02T19:00:00.003-05:00

has a little fear. That's Cameron on the beach and Maren at the bottom of the lake. He said he's been thinking about it for awhile. I guess we won't be taking any trips to the beach for awhile.

2010-01-21T13:49:00.002-05:00

Last week I had to go to Walmart, which truly only happens maybe once a year when I give into the pressure and the poverty, and decide I can possibly stomach the trip from the overwhelming feeling of the winning I will get from the mind blowing savings. It never goes well, it always sucks, and I always say (after I threaten to burn it down) that I am never going to go there ever again. But I had to, it was the closest place to where I was. And I needed to get a Mr. Clean scrubber thingy because of the great promises to remove everything.

All because of this, from my darling little babe.

We have MULTIPLE talks in our house about drawing on paper ONLY. Everyone knows this, yet it still happens. It really is a head scratcher. Really.

So, I decide she is going to help clean it off. Before I even hand her the scrubber, she is complaining that she doesn't know how to clean. Uh, how many times have we done this? We continue on. And so does the whining. Eventually, I dismiss her and do it by myself.

Two seconds later, she comes in and says, "I just wanted to draw of picture of you Mom, so you can sleep with me at night."

Ugh. My heart. I use any and all the LOVE I can muster to hug and cuddle with her as we enjoy the masterpiece she created. So it stayed, at least one more night.

my picture is on the left and on the right is a picture of a dolphin

2010-01-05T15:14:00.005-05:00

Sunday was the last day for Christmas break for Zack, Coleman and Riley. They had fun not doing the school thing for 2 weeks. They even got bored a few times. They came to me one time and asked what they could do. I told them to throw out some suggestions of what they thought would be fun. All of them included spending money, like bowling, movie, going to Target. (I'm so glad they find this to be a fun past time, just like me.) I told them no, we couldn't do those things now, maybe another day, since it was dinner time. Then they just broke down saying things like:
"We're tired of t.v.!" huh?
"We're sick of playing video games!" what the?
"We don't want to play with toys!" say again?!
I was looking forward to getting back into a schedule having their days filled with things again.

Sunday, it also snowed all. day. long. Cameron and I were talking and I said something to the effect of how bad it would suck if the kids had a snow day.

5:00 am Monday morning we get the automated call from the school saying school was cancelled. Oh well, what's one more day. Plus it was really fun getting to sleep in till 7:45 when the boys came running in saying they were going to be late. I had a little fun with them telling them I wasn't going to make them go to school if they didn't want to.

SO, Monday became the new last day of Christmas vacation and they took dad up on his offer to play xbox as long as they wanted. And they did.

The girls just played barbies and dress ups all day long. I'm sure Maren was glad for the friend.

I got through part of my pile of projects that the girls are playing on.

Riley's school was cancelled for today also. So she has had 2 snow days. I told her she didn't have school today and she was so sad. She was asking me something about it and her voice started to get all quivery and shaky because she has missed going. Hopefully it will stop snowing long enough for her to go tomorrow.

my love letter

2010-01-01T16:34:00.005-05:00

Coleman went outside to play. When he was done, he hurried as fast as he could to take everything off to show me what he made me outside.

Here, let me help.

He's so cute!

Coleman's birthday

2009-11-11T13:58:00.004-05:00

The 30th was Coleman's 7th birthday. Sometimes it's still weird to think that he is 7. He's still just as cute and sweet, emotional and dramatic as he was when we brought him home. When he was a baby and I would leave him home with Cameron, I would ALWAYS get a phone call an hour later with him freaking out in the background. Cameron would always say that he was "barking" again. And that's what it sounded like. Barking. For no reason at all.

Life hasn't changed much with Coleman. Just this morning as I was sending him out the door to catch the bus that was at the end of the road, he broke down crying. For no reason at all. I don't know what kind of recipe of hormones we gave that kid, but there is always something brewing in that little body of his.

BUT, Coleman also has the best work ethic of any of our kids. He will stick with a job until it's done. No matter what. He will not leave anything undone. The second he walks through the door after school, he pulls his homework out and gets it done before anything else. It's awesome. He is also everyone's best friend. He would do anything for you if you asked him to. With all the good and bad that comes with him, it all balances out to make one pretty great kid.

These were the first pictures that I got of him. This was me telling him to smile good and stop looking so tortured. The ones above are Cameron standing behind me doing the River Dance and promising ice cream.

Coleman got to have his birthday party on his birthday, which he was very excited about. And, it was a "night party". This was a big deal to all the kids. I guess they all were talking about it and how cool it was to go to a party at night. Funny.

This party was also not an exclusive boy party. He invited . . . GIRLS! He either saw it as no big deal ( boys/girls, they're all the same ), he likes the girls he invited ( we saw a lot of the girls sitting close to him ), or he wanted to torture me by inviting more people. I haven't figured out which one it was yet.

10.31.09

2009-11-03T15:27:00.006-05:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I love the excitement of the night of trick-or-treating, but I hate the prep work just to get out the door. And then I really don't like the asking for candy every 2 minutes for the next 3 months. When you have 4 kids, all trick-or-treating, you kind of make a haul.

Funny story. Coleman wanted to be a storm trooper. We were going to make it, but ran out of time. We had a friend that said they had a costume they weren't using, so we went with that. Plus we already had the helmet. He goes to put it on and freaks out. We finally figured out that the helmet was from Star Wars 4 and the suit was from Star Wars 2. (or something like that) The helmet and the suit didn't match up to what movies they were from. Completely ridiculous! So he switched seconds before we were walking out the door to Darth Vader, which we already had.

Zack was death. Cameron whipped that one together for me. He even sewed the costume!

Riley and Maren were witch princesses. Maren is very specific about that. I made their skirts and their brooms. Can we say extreme? Yep! I only got this one picture of Maren that night, so I had to take them out and get more. They were pretty cute!

By the end of the night, everyone was freezing. Zack and Coleman were done. Maren didn't care either way, she could go home or stay out. But Riley, when she found out we were heading home, she planted her feet and was determined to stay out as long as she could. Even though she was freezing and shivering. Of course, we won! It was cold!

maren's birthday

2009-10-16T16:26:00.004-04:00

The 14th was Maren's 3rd birthday. She was very excited. Throughout the day, I would tell her happy birthday and every time, she would make a high pitched gasp and say "It's my birthday?" I think this happened at least 30 times. She must have just liked hearing that it was her birthday.

We all love this little girl. If there was one word to describe her, it would be spunky! She's the one that everyone wants to be with because she is so much fun. She also has a mind of her own and she chooses to use it as much as she can. A lot of her personality comes out in these pictures.

Here are some random birthday facts about our family.

1. We all either have a birthday in May or October. May= Cameron, Zack, Riley.
October= Steph, Coleman, Maren. { Yes, that was planned. And YES, we are that good! }
2. October birthdays : We are all 8 days apart.
3. The day that I had Maren I was, to the day, the same age as my mom when she had me.

2009-09-18T20:39:00.004-04:00

Cameron (after Zack and Coleman got into a fight) : "Boys, because you fought, I'm going to make you clean the room together."
Coleman: "Zack has to do more because he kicked me twice."
Cameron: "No he doesn't. Coleman, you started the fight."
Coleman: "So does that mean I have to do more."
Cameron: "No, you both have to clean the room. But you'll have to do it while wearing a dress."

back to school

2009-08-25T15:08:00.002-04:00

I feel like I was just writing about the last day of school.

Coleman was excited about 1st grade, but nervous. He doesn't look very happy in the picture. And he wasn't. Mostly because he saw all of his friends at the bus stop and didn't want to stand there and get his picture taken. Little does he know, he has eleven more of these coming!

Zack is "mostly not excited" for school. He thinks 4th grade is going to be hard just because the class supply list was quite outrageous!

My thoughts for right now.

2009-06-22T09:45:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to put this down on [paper], and since this is a place where it won't get lost or filed away not to be seen again for awhile, this is where it will go.

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

I can't imagine my life without them. I feel so lucky to be the MOM of these four sweet little kids. Each of them with their own personalities and quirks. I love it all and would never trade it for anything. Each of them are smart, funny, kind, loving with a little streak of bad in there. :)

My goal in this life is to raise them the best way I can and know how. With so many things in the world to be sad or worried about, I hope that I can help them along the way to be pillars in their circle of influence. That they will be the good that others can look to and know that everything will be OK. I hope that I can teach them right and wrong and to NEVER back down from that knowledge. I hope that their light shines as brightly as their potential does. I have really felt lately that we need to raise them to be most amazing people because the world is going to need them to be amazing.

I hope everything I do in my life will be an example of good for them. That when things are placed in front of them that could harm them physically or spiritually, they will be able to rise above it. There is nothing in this life worth more than what lies ahead in the next. I want to be with my family FOREVER and I will do everything in my power to get there with them. And I hope they will do the same for me.

Zack, Coleman, Riley and Maren,
I love you!

moments like these

2009-06-10T15:10:00.003-04:00

Sunday night while Cameron and I were watching TV, we went through the shows for the week to record all the stuff that we wanted to watch. ( Is it possible to watch live TV anymore? ) I saw that Ghostbusters was on, so we recorded it for the kids to watch later on.

We all cuddled up on the couch to turn on our show. I told the girls that when I told them to, I wanted them to cover their eyes. Do you remember which part I was worried about? The part in the library at the beginning. If you don't remember, go watch the whole movie. It's a classic and has the most quotablity. (I just made that word up) OK, it's a tie with Tommy Boy. Quotes like "Llisten. Do you smell something?" or "mother pussbucket" or "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!" or how about "I feel like the floor of a taxi cab." And Cameron needs to remember this one. "Back off, man. I'm a scientist." So many good ones. But back to the story.

The part in the movie comes on and Maren immediately covers her entire face with her tiny little hands. She was very obedient. I look over at Riley and she has her entire arm over her face. But where her elbow bent, she had a little peep hole to look through. She saw the whole thing.

She quietly watched the rest of the movie, laughing at the funny parts and was pretty much glued to the TV. We all had a great time. Until it was time to go to bed. That's when everything fell apart in her little world. She could no longer go upstairs by herself. Go in her room by herself. Go to the bathroom by herself. She couldn't even pull her pajamas on over her head because that would mean she wasn't looking forward to see what was going to pop out in front of her.

I finally got her into bed and as I was leaving, she asked very sweetly if Zack could sleep with her so she wouldn't be scared. (she has our old queen bed, so there is room to spare) He very willingly went in there, excited to be the hero and protector of all. I hid behind the door to watch and listen to see how he handled his new popularity and what she did in her "damsel in distress" roll. He talked to her and told her it was going to be OK and there were no such things as monsters or ghosts and that she didn't need to be scared because he was there. It was very cute.

After a little while, I went to check on them, make sure they had gone to sleep, and to see if Zack had been pulled into one of Riley's evil plots. But, what I saw when I went in made my heart melt a little. They had fallen asleep like this.

I told Cameron to go in a look at them. He stood there watching them. Then as usual, he had to climb up in there with them. To him, a perfectly still, happy sleeping body is to irresistible leave alone.

Next day, Riley asks if she can watch Ghostbusters again. I turn it on after the library part. She catches on to what I was doing and she says, "No, I want to watch the scary part again."

2009-06-05T15:42:00.006-04:00

:: it's official ::

Summer has begun.

I'm bummed these pictures were blurry. I saw the bus go pass the window, so I was a caught a little off guard. And they were running really fast at me. I couldn't get it together fast enough.

Are they excited? You betcha. Me? Make the smallest space between your thumb and pointer finger, that's where I'm at. More time at home means, everyone's volume level goes up a couple of notches, more "mom, can I have...", more fighting, more I'm bored. I'm glad that I get them home, but to be honest, I'm a little afraid of them too. They are going to be demanding little people again. And I can guarantee that I will hit my all time record this summer of saying "Knock it off!"

2009-05-18T14:12:00.006-04:00

:: project done ::

I finished the boys desk last week and was all geared up to post it, but I couldn't. The blog thought it was more in charge than me and said no. As I was finishing the desk and waiting in between each coat of stain, I thought I'd tackle a few more projects.

{ the desk }

before.

after.

I've been trying to decide which knobs to put on and just seeing them in the picture, we're going black. It also looks really shiny on the top, but it's not. The picture, I found at a discount store for $7.00!! The regular price tag said $99.99. Now I just need to hang it.

Remember this? I found it on the side of the road in someones garbage. It was an old radio and record player. I took it all out. It was gross. It had years of dead bugs in it.

I knew I wanted this in my foyer just as you walked in. The only light that you get in the foyer is from the light above you. So I wanted a lamp for it which I found at a thrift store for $4.00. I liked the shape, just not the finish, so I spray painted it with an oil rubbed bronze paint. I think I let out a little wahoo! in the aisle of home depot when I saw that.

after.

I just have to put the knobs on and decide if I'm keeping the lamp shade. I also made the frame and got some vinyl lettering that says 'please remove your shoes'. I have a picture of the kids bare feet to put in there.

Those finger prints on the doors are killing me. But, right now, fingerprints are my life. I also want to make a trip to good ol' Hobby Lobby to get things to put in, on and around this.

I also started painting Riley's room. We are doing a fun little thing for her walls that I'll put on here as soon as we are done.

2009-04-30T16:32:00.007-04:00

:: my new project ::

So here is my next big project.

I got this about 2 months ago at a antique/craft co-op store. I have been wanting to get a desk for the boys room so they can do their own projects without having to put everything away every time. The girls are notorious for getting into things and causing serious damage. So when I saw this, I had to have it. It's big and it's heavy and I love the feet. And it's not really missing a drawer, I was just too lazy to put it back in before the picture. The best part was the $8.00 price tag. My plan is to strip it and stain it dark. Normally, I would pull out my gallon of black paint (is it bad that I buy black paint by the gallon?) but we are being over run by black furniture. It's everywhere. So we're treading new water here. I've got a deadline - 2 weeks. The boys keep bugging me about it, they want it - BAD! So, here we go. Wish me luck!

Easter

2009-04-13T11:09:00.004-04:00

I have had a major lack in blogging mojo lately. Cameron thought it was a bloggers block, but I just haven't felt like to doing it. I have plently to blog about, which (no promises) I going to try and get caught up on this week. I have 2 months worth!! Ick, the task seems daunting.

Anyway, we had a good Easter. Cameron had to speak in church. He was the last speaker of 4. The first 3 were all new members who have been baptized in the last couple of months. Such good, amazing people! We also, since being the Kirtland Ward, had a bus full of people from Europe touring all the church history sites. Church was very full!

Cameron's mom has also been here all week long. It was spring break for the boys, so it was the perfect week for her to come. She also did an Easter egg hunt for all of us. Even Cameron and I. She stuffed all the eggs with money. $120 worth! We all hid in the basement while she did the eggs. Then we all came up and she said go and we were all off. Coleman won with $30, Zack in second with $27, me, Cameron and Riley with $5.50. I don't remember how much Cameron and I got. Little Marsey got her own at the end with candy in the eggs. It was fun. The boys were off the next day to buy Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii.

I also decided on a whim that i was going to make the girls Easter dresses. I don't like the chiffon-y dresses that they have at the stores. So I drew up a pattern and off I went.

my pattern.

the result.

{I should have gotten pictures before church. After church, shirts come untucked and hair gets pulled out of piggies. }

The boys were feeling left out on getting the pictures taken, so I had them all come out and jump. Some of the pictures that I got were hilarious. Our favorite part was the shape that their shadows made.

2009-02-14T11:07:00.002-05:00

check out last years to see how the kids have changed

2009-01-30T16:47:00.008-05:00

it just keeps getting better . . . { 11 years }

photo by nicole

1.20.09 - a day in history

2009-01-26T09:46:00.005-05:00

Seeing the big picture amazes me.
Although he didn't get my vote, I hope for the future.

In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue

2009-01-16T10:11:00.004-05:00

In two thousand and nine, Stephanie did nothing except sleep for a really long time.

So really, Chris and I both know how to make good use of our time. I sleep in. He discovers North America.

But hey, in my defense, it was REALLY cold today, so school was canceled, perfect for sleeping late.

Can you see those numbers. Temp is -8, but it feels like -30 with 70% humidity. Who lives like this?

I usually can't sleep in. Once I'm awake, that's it, I'm up. Cameron and I even trade every Saturday who gets to sleep in. He does very well at it. I'm usually up by 8 - 8:30. That's even with me trying to stay there as long as I can so I don't get the "that's it? That's not even sleeping in" lecture.

And I think it’s against the law or something to set an alarm clock on days off from school. Well if it’s not, it should be, don’t you think?

So I didn’t get out of bed until 10:30 today, and can I say, it was won.der.ful.

I did get up at 8 when Cameron was leaving for work. I came down for morning scripture study and family prayer. But, that bed was calling to me, so I went back up. Maren was still in bed, why couldn't I be.

I felt a tap on my back about 8:45, Riley was informing me that Maren was now awake. She said that she would get her out. Well since she put it that way, I rolled over again. A few seconds later I hear, "ok maren, i'm getting you out today. hold on." Then in Maren's cute little voice I hear, "O tay Rirey. Be tareful." Then came a very loud thud, then giggling. Ok, we're good. I'm stayin.

At 9:15, another tap on the back from Maren saying she is thirsty. But she didn't hover, she just ran off. I thought about getting up at that point. But I figured she must not be that thirsty if she's not going to tell me 30 times. So the darkness of my room and the sound of children quietly watching TV made it so tempting to roll over yet again. So I did.

When the sound of peaceful TV watching turned into the sound of the WWF Junior League in my family room, I could not ignore my parenting responsibilities any longer. So I got up. But I really didn’t want to.

(I like to think it still counts as sleeping until 10:30 even if I was interrupted every hour or so.)

((I choose to believe it does, because I haven’t slept without interruptions in eight-ish years.))

So I figured, since I slept through breakfast, I might as well continue the trend of supreme parenting that was taking place today, and I hopped in my car and got everyone McDonald’s. It was a brunch of happy meals.

I think I'll even follow it by a day spent in my pj’s.

It's going to be a good day.

back in the saddle

2009-01-07T10:28:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the unannounced blog break. For as guilty as I felt for not getting on here to get our life on (vitutal) paper, its been a really wonderful break - a break from not only blogging, but from reading blogs (gasp!), but now I'm spending a lot of time catching up. So to start things off, here's what happened in the month of November. And to keep up the laziness, I'm TOTALLY copying this post from my sister-in-law, Carly. I've added some of my own pictures, but it's mostly her work. She came out for Thanksgiving and she summed everything up perfectly.

So here, in the words of Carly, is how our Thanksgiving went.

I went to the Ohio to visit Cam and Steph and their chitlins. The flight was short and non-eventful, just like we like 'em to be. I was greeted at the airport by Steph and the two little girls, Riley and Maren. Maren was a little stand-offish at first, but pretty soon all the kids were my best buddies, wanting me to play lightsabers and gun fights and dress ups with them. The next day, as I was getting ready, I was greeted by two little girls wanting some make-up. I didn't know if they were ready for mascara and lipstick, but I didn't want to disappoint so I gave them just a little something.

Maren's tat was mostly rubbed off within 30 minutes, but Riley's heart stayed on for a couple of days. After that, Riley asked for make up every time I was near the bathroom.

We didn't have a whole lot planned, just mostly hanging out, and it was really nice. I had talked to Stephanie a week before and said I wanted to help make a big Thanksgiving dinner, complete with pies. The day before, Steph and I made a chocolate custard pie from the Lion House recipe book. It was very elaborate and involved and made me feel like I was a real cook. Thanksgiving day, we made the rest of the meal, complete with a huge 47 lb turkey (well, it might not have been that big, but it seemed pretty large). It took Cameron and I hours to carve it and when I left on Monday, we hadn't even eaten half of the turkey meat. It was a really fun Thanksgiving.

The next day we went to shining, shimmering, splendid, neat and clean downtown Cleveland to a mall. After parking 83 levels below the mall, the Durango barely making it into the 6'0" tall parking garage, and braving a 251-year-old elevator to wind our way back to civilization, we made it to the mall. We headed over to this Santa's workshop discovery museum gateway laboratory school factory type event-like place that wafted sweet, rotten cauliflower and dirty playdough aromas and boasted an array of elf-type creatures. The bigger kids were given lab coats to don during their adventure-type-discovery-lesson.

Ah, look at those minds at work. The girls were enjoying the noise making section of the discovery-like-mystery-tour.

After our our creating-ish-cog-turning-escapade in Santa's...whatever, we opted to skip seeing the big guy and head to the candy store. I bought three small bags of candy for only $52 and my left kidney.

Lastly, we headed to a train ride around the mall, complete with angry parents scolding the train driver for having too long of a line.

All tuckered out, we headed home. Such is the elaborate, glamorous life in Cleveland, the jewel of America (under my rough exterior of sarcasm and cynicism is a heart of gold that enjoyed every minute of being with my family).

That night, the durn TV busted for the second or third time, so Cameron was left with no choice but to head to the store buy a new one. I watched the kids while Cam and Steph went shopping. After the kids were all asleep, they walked in the door with a very LARGE piece of electronic wall art. Cameron wanted to install it immediately. Steph and I watched with amusement as he labored over getting it just right.

Saturday, we headed to Pittsburgh for another day full of adventure-type-discover-ish-ness. After having a nice impromptu driving tour of Pittsburgh's red light district, we made our way to the other side of town to the Science Center. It was four floors of pure genius. We stayed there for hours and hours. It was a blast. I don't know who had more fun, the kids, Cameron, or me and Steph watching the kids.

Maren has some serious skills in her stroller. She has learned how to be dexterous and nimble in obtaining what she is after, all while fully or partially strapped in. She's just as capable as well of bringing it home and putting it on the DL, reclining and putting her feet up on the safety bar. She's learning to get the stroller to work for her, sorting laundry and filing tax returns...like I said, serious skills.

Riley has this thing with smelling and/or licking things as a way of learning more about them. She smelled, and sometimes licked, all the lids and discs and categorized them in her own way. It's very cute; luckily she hasn't turned that fetish toward people (let's hope that stays in the bag until she's at least 16).

Riley and Coleman loved this water feature place.

Riley especially loved it, and stayed there without making a peep, barely looking up to acknowledge other humans for at least 30 minutes.

Zack and Coleman also liked this ball place; sort of like McDonald's play place on steroids.

Maren playing with tins sticking to a magnetic wall.

After barrels of fun at the science center, we headed to the Duquesne Incline. No, it's not a ski slope, my friend, it's a trolley thingy built around the turn of the century. Basically, Pittsburgh has several steep hills, and during the time period, in order to get up the hill quickly and efficiently, they rode an incline. It's like a trolley sitting on top of a triangle that rides level up the hill. Look it up, it's pretty cool.

We had to cross a super old pedestrian bridge to get to the incline from the parking lot (Zack is on the left, Cameron in the middle).

At the top of the incline, they had a little museum and overlook of the city.

The building with the funnel-satellite dish-looking thing on the top and the big red letters is the science center. The stadium is where the Steelers play.

Zack at the top. Smile big, dear.

After downtown Pittsburgh, we headed to IKEA. I'll tell you what, that was like an amusement park. What a site. I thoroughly enjoyed it (what, no sarcasm? Did someone else start typing on Carly's blog?).

The next day was church. We were late, thanks to me (come on, are you surprised? Really?). It was a nice small ward which I really enjoy. After church we took a 3 minute drive to the Kirtland Temple and took a tour of that. I got to see the attic which I didn't get to see the first time I went through it and was slightly miffed, so that was exciting. Did you know that the Kirtland temple was originally a grayish-blue with a red roof at it's dedication? All my years as a Mormon, and I never knew that.

The next day we played dress ups and watched the barbie diamond castle, picked the boys up from school and headed to the airport for a sad good bye, all the while singing that old Christmas favorite, "Old McDonald had some pants, boy-ee, boy-ee, boy-ee." At the airport, I asked Steph if I could take a picture with the kids. They all had to climb out of the warm car onto the cold, cruel sidewalk to stand next to me. Don't they look sad to see me go?

Huh, ...let's try taking one more.

Perfect.

I'm so glad I got to go see them while I had time and money to do it. Every time I see them I'm more sad they live so far away. Hopefully after just a few more years, they'll make like a pioneer and head west.

Thanks for coming Carly. Thanks for also writing this all out for me!

this is how we roll

2008-11-12T09:01:00.001-05:00

We hit the Halloween clearance at Target for some dress-ups for Riley. Unless we are out of the house, all she wears is some sort of dress up. So I got this dress for her at 50% off. We didn't pull it out of the bag for a couple of days. I went back to Target and all the Halloween stuff was 90% off. So I took the dress back in and asked if they would give me a price adjustment. They said sure. Next thing, I'm strutting out of the store knowing I'm the coolest mom ever because I bought this baby for $1.06! I really wish I would have grabbed more things. Next year!

Riley was so excited to be able to wear it. It's also perfect for winter. Here's what I found her doing just after she put it on. Looking all sweet and pretty, dancing away to her own singing of the Diamond Castle (Barbie) song.

This is what I found this morning. Her and Coleman were playing and saying that the storm troopers were about the overtake the house. They were trying to blow up as many as they could.

2008-11-10T10:08:00.002-05:00

We had our family pictures done and as history goes, there is always something that makes them a little more interesting.

For these, a few days before Riley decided that she needed a hair cut. She actually didn't do to bad of a job. It was actually so good that I didn't even do anything to fix it. She gave herself bangs. They were a little shorter than I would have done, but she didn't do so bad.

About 10 minutes before we were to be leaving, Cameron sends Zack to me to help clean off his face. He had a soccer game earlier that day and had gotten a grape Gatorade after the game. He remembered he had it so decided to drink it right before we left. I started scrubbing and it wasn't coming off. I look a little closer and it's a HICKEY!!! He sucked on the bottle and made it stick to his mouth and gave himself a lovely little shiner. So now in all the pictures, he sporting this lovely little thing. Oh well, there is always something.

one down

2008-11-08T14:22:00.004-05:00

We sanded and painted, Cameron made a new top out of cherry, we put new hardware on, scrubbed it x3

inside to remove the years of junk. It's already filled and it's a perfect fit!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-05T09:00:00.002-05:00

2008-11-03T08:43:00.005-05:00

OK, so here goes my one and only political post! But, I have been thinking about the election tomorrow. I don't remember an election being so divided on so many things. I guess they could have always been that way and I haven't really paid attention until now. But, I do feel that this one is a big one. I think there are a lot of people out there voting for Obama just because they want "change". No matter what, it will still be a change.

First, I'm voting Republican. Not so much John McCain. But for the views of Republican.

I'm voting Republican because:

-I'm Pro Life. BIG ONE HERE!!! If someone gets pregnant, it's not a mistake. If you engaged in that act, the primary function of that act is to reproduce. It's not a mistake. Why make the child pay by penalty of death for your "mistake"? check out my cousin-in-law's blog for more on this.

-I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Marriage is sacred and should remain that way!

-I support the 2nd amendment. If I didn't, my husband would be out of a hobby.

-I appreciate what America is!

-If we are smart enough to make the money, then we are smart enough to know how to spend it. I'm not a socialist!

-I'm proud that our country is seen as the best chance to realize your dream!

-I believe in God, and I love it! There are organizations that Obama supports that want God out of our lives.

-I believe in being honest and having morals. I don't want to live in a country where I am forced to accept dishonest and immorral practices.

I have a friend that I think said it perfectly. "Although both candidates are horrible . . . I would rather have a John McCain that does nothing than a Barack Obama who destroys the fundamentals of this country."

By the way, this is my blog and I can say what I want. I also have the right to delete your comment.

Happy Birthday Coleman!

2008-10-30T16:11:00.002-04:00

Lucky kid turns 6 today! He has been more than excited about this day. Coleman is the kid in the family with a FULL range of emotions. I've said it before on here, that he is a 13 year old girl stuck in a 6 year old boys body. Here are some of the many faces of Coleman we love! (almost)

He's the family comedian.

He love to make the grosses noises. At least this one was a burp!

In true boy fashion, it is the most hilarious thing ever!

"OOOOOO, I can't stand it anymore!"

This is the classic Coleman face. You would never know anything was wrong would you?

This is the 'I am so bored, everything hurts' face.

This is what you get when you put Superman in pink underwear.

This is also another classic Coleman face. He never likes to be caught thinking something is funny. So he tries not to smile but ends up being super CUTE!

The 'I am SOO not doing that' face.

Our once little guy who is growing up to fast!

2008-10-27T17:33:00.005-04:00

Some days, the business of being a PRINCESS just wears you out !!

2008-10-14T17:29:00.001-04:00

what we've been doin...

2008-10-08T15:27:00.004-04:00

Watching our baby grow up! She'll be 2 next week!

I believe it is what the hip people refer to as ‘kickin’ it’

2008-09-12T19:14:00.003-04:00

With Zack back in school, Coleman in Kindergarten in the afternoon, Riley and Maren's nap/quiet time, I have, for the first time in 8.5 years, found myself alone for 3 hours every day.

Did you get the part about this being the first time in 8.5 years that I’ve been alone during the day?

Tis true. I have been raisin’ babies for over 8.5 years now. But finally, mercifully, they have reached an age which allows me more free time than I’ve had since I was in college sittin’ in the apartment watching Days of our Lives and Friends (wow, that was pathetic even to admit).

And when you’re not getting up to go to class, you have A LOT of free time.

Three hours may not sound like alot, but for a stay at mom, it is like opening the pandora’s box of time. Even though there are almost always things to be accomplished, I have not been using my new found free time in the wisest ways.

Read: I've been playing around on the internet.

Cameron even called the other day asking what I was doing. (Well, duh, I'm on the computer.) But, I didn't tell him that, I just said that it's my lunch break.

This afternoon I was home putting baskets full of laundry away, straightening some things and doing my daily dishes erradication routine. It was dark and raining and I felt like I needed something to wake me up so I turned on the music from the computer. With one click the music could be heard through every room in our house.

And I left it. Because I am cool like that.

I know the words to the songs and nothing makes me happier than a good ol’ sing along with a dance move thrown in here and there.

It’s amazing what I accomplished today in just three hours while staying home and singing my little heart out.

I could get used to this. Maybe.

But, now this is what everything looks like. Just like before I started. Do you think this means I have to do it again?

mmm, tasty!

2008-09-02T09:07:00.002-04:00

. . . at least that's what Maren says when she eats anything. But these, they are very tasty!

I got the recipe from Carrie when she brought us dinner after we had Riley or Maren. (I don't remember, it was all too close together) Anyway, I LOVED her cookie recipe and knew that I had found 'the one'! You know, the one chocolate chip cookie that you've been looking for that just works. Well, this is it. Carrie, I hope you don't mind me sharing, but it's too good not to.

1 POUND of butter, softened (yep, that would be 4 sticks)
2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
{cream those together}
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
{mix together with butter mix}
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 cups of flour
{mix together}
I usually get the big bags of chocolate chips, so I just add 4 - 5 handfuls of chips, but do what works for you.

Bake at 350 for however long you like. Some like chewy, some like crispy.

Now here is where the genius comes. This recipe makes a lot. But, I don't like to eat entire batch of cookies in one day and I also don't like to eat cookies that are a day old. Cookies are always best right from the oven. I figured this out one night after getting rid of a lot of stale cookies.
So what you do is, scoop out all your dough into balls, place them on wax paper or something they won't stick to. Stick them in the freezer until frozen.

Then put them in a plastic bag.

Then when you want some cookies, you only have to cook one pan at a time, or one cookie at a time. Just cook a few extra minutes than normal.

day no.1

2008-08-29T15:51:00.004-04:00

All smiles and laughing. I think the first day of school was a good one!

2008-08-27T14:20:00.004-04:00

For the past 3 weeks, I have been taking a photography class offered by the college. I'm a little sad that it was only 3 weeks long, because I learned a ton. Every week we were given assignments that we would have to take in and be critiqued by the class and the teacher. Not to toot my own horn, but . . . toot toot!
I took out my only willing subject for an hour of picture taking before her bladder got the best of her. This is what I got.

2008-08-20T11:14:00.006-04:00

Saturday, the 16th, Carly (cameron's sister) was in a car accident in Georgia. She was there with some friends for the wedding of another friend. They had just left the temple and were on their way to the reception. They were stopped at a stop light and were rear ended by a guy who had fallen asleep. They were hit at 70 mph. Carly was in the back seat. Her hip was dislocated and she has a cut across her forehead. But the thing that was the scariest was that she had broken her neck. Luckily, it didn't affect her spinal cord and she is still able to move her arms and legs. One of the guys in the car was killed on impact.

We are so glad she is OK. Lindsay (cameron's sister) flew out to be with her at the hospital. She has taken such good care of Carly and is always calling with updates on how she is doing. The stake out in Macon, GA has also been very good about taking care of all who were involved. When the accident happened, the EQ president who was at the wedding was with them all in the hospital and stayed for quite awhile to relay anything to the families until they could get there.

One of my favorite stories of Carly comes from one of the ER nurses who came to find Carly a few days later. She was telling Lindsay that being an ER nurse is really hard sometimes because most people who come through there are hurt and angry. For a lot of people swearing is a way to express their pain, fear and anger. So she hears swearing all day long, every day she is there. When Carly was in there, the nurse said that out of nowhere she heard this beautiful voice start signing Nearer My God to Thee. (Carly is an awesome singer!) She said that the mood in the ER completely changed. There was even a lady in there who said that she hasn't been to church in 10 years, but because of Carly and the spirit that she brought, she was going to go back. I guess Carly even started taking requests for songs...until they had to knock her out and put her hip back in place. Carly was asked if she remembered any of that and she didn't. She only remembered thinking of what she could do to handle the pain and singing was the best answer.

We are so grateful she is OK! She has a long recovery ahead of her, but she has the best attitude and will make the best of it.

We are so lucky to have you as a sister, sister-in-law and aunt!
Get better soon!

Lindsay is also updating her blog with pictures so we can all keep up with what going on.
www.queenlou.blogspot.com

Also, the driver of their car wrote out the full details of the accident here
www.christmasnoel.blogspot.com

This is why....

2008-08-06T15:49:00.004-04:00

Men should not be allowed to decorate!!

This is what we came home to when we got back from CA and UT. Cameron said that the house needed a man's touch. Hmmm. I told him he could have his touch when he built me my office, coffee and end tables, my bed, Riley's dresser. There's all kinds of places that I could use his touch. Let's just leave this stuff to me.

alive?

2008-07-24T11:21:00.007-04:00

31 days without a post! Wow! Were you wondering if I were dead? Just about, I'm beat! Where have we been? It feels like everywhere. The kids and I flew to CA for 2 weeks to see my parents. Then we rented a car and drove to UT to be with Cameron's family for a family reunion. We just got home and there really is no place like home!
Here's what we did in Cali.

Lots and LOTS of this. The kids were in my parents pool everyday. As soon as they finished breakfast they wanted to go swimming.

Sorry bud. It will never work. Trust me, I've tried!

All the toys had to be swimming also.

My mom got to join us for a little while outside.

We found this pizza place that was a cross between CiCi's and Chuck E. Cheeses. They had the buffet pizza, salad, pasta, dessert bar stuff. They also had all the video game things and there were roller costers, bumper cars, a bowling alley, and a lot of other junk to waste your money on. Of course, the kids loved it.

It was so hot while we were there. I didn't have my camera with me later on, but this said 112. Now, I completely realize that for some of you this isn't that hot. But when you are used to 85 degrees in the summer with 85-90% humidity, it's just a completely different kind of hot. Just not used to it...that's all.

Because of all the fires in CA (around 1500) this is what it looked like outside everyday. It smelled like smoke, it burned your eyes and it felt like you were standing around a campfire that had just been put out. It was yucky.

Are you KIDDING me????!!!!
The highest that we saw driving from CA to UT was 4.79. Give me a break!

Other stuff that we did while we were there, but didn't get pictures of:

--Coleman teaching my mom all about HALO.
--Eating pancakes. This is always a favorite for the kids. My dad likes to cook pancakes and if
he beat us downstairs in the morning, there would be pancakes waiting for us.
--Playing with Legos. Favorite thing to make: GUNS! of course.
--Seeing my friend Megan and her super cute family. We always miss each other by a week or
so when we go out, but this time we managed to get about 15 minutes in. It was much to
short Meg!
--Going to Wal-Mart for milk every other day. My parents fridge could only handle about 2
gallons at a time. We go through about a gallon a day!

Our trip to Utah will be coming soon!

just to pass the time...

2008-06-23T16:50:00.003-04:00

Zack goes out to dig holes to see what he can find. So far, the loot has been 2 golf balls, a really weird looking stick and some metal. He spent a good 2 hours out there "trying to dig up stuff!"

Zack's big day!

2008-06-12T15:33:00.004-04:00

I feel like we've hit a milestone as parents. Sunday was Zack's baptism. We did it right after church, which was the perfect time for us. We were already dressed and ready, so we didn't have to struggle with getting people dressed on a Saturday night. The kids were all (surprisingly) in a good mood after 3 long hours of church.

Zack had asked Coleman to give the opening prayer, which he did a great job at. Then he asked me to give a talk on baptism and Cameron's mom to talk about the Holy Ghost. He was very cute the whole way through. He wasn't nervous at all and he paid attention to everything. After he was baptized, I went in to help him get dressed. As I was helping him, I asked him how he felt about everything, and he told me that he didn't really like all the attention to be all on him. I had to laugh and just say "I'm right there with ya!"

He wasn't a real big fan of the white jumpsuit, but I loved it and thought he looked really cute in it.

We are so proud of him. Although it was kind of expected of him to get baptized, I know that he has a great knowledge of the gospel. He really enjoys the stories in the scriptures and he is learning to appreciate them and how they relate to him in his life. He is a great example to me and his whole family.

We are proud of you Zack and love you very much!

car·pet

2008-06-03T08:31:00.008-04:00

Pronunciation: \ˈkär-pət\
1: a heavy often tufted fabric used as a floor covering; also : a floor covering made of this fabric
2: a surface or layer resembling or suggesting a carpet

We got our carpet for the basement today. We are so close to being done. Things left to do on the list: finish railings for the stairs so the kiddos do go overboard, trim the doors so they fit again (carpet is too fluffly), trim the windows and put something up there (no idea what!), build the cabinets, move the furniture in!

Super before picutres:

with the walls done, but no carpet.

glad to see this guy go!

We now have carpet! As the guy was showing me everything right before they left, Riley was running in circles. And that's why we did it. So they could have their own spot to run circles.

now we have to get that boy buildin!

oops! someone didn't measure right!

soaked!

2008-06-02T13:07:00.002-04:00

I turned the shower on today and Maren must have heard it and came running, because this is what I found as I was about to get in. She was loving every minute of it!

happy birthday ZACK!!

2008-05-26T08:57:00.008-04:00

Eight years ago (I don't feel old enough to have an 8 year old!) Zack joined our family. When he was born, he cried for about 5 seconds then started looking around the room. You could tell that he was very curious about what was going on. He hasn't changed a bit! He loves to learn and is just like his dad and can remember anything!

Some favorites of Zack's are:

We know that Zack was meant to be our first and the oldest. He is a good example to his brother and sisters and he loves them a lot. He is very sweet with all of them and is always willing to help them when they need it.

On the to do list for today:
go golfing
go bowling
go shooting with dad
open presents
have cake and ice cream

Since school is out for Memorial Day today, Zack took in treats for his class on Friday. A few months ago they had an "eating of the greens" week, where they learned about different green vegetables. Then the parents brought in different green things for the class to try. I made zucchini bread and apparently the kids all loved it. When I asked Zack what he wanted to take the kids in his class for his birthday, he wanted to do zucchini bread. But we settled on these cupcakes instead. He helped me make the pinwheels and the cupcakes.

it's cameron's birthday!

2008-05-23T22:55:00.007-04:00

Today Cameron turned the big, dare I say, 3. 2. He still gets super excited about his birthday. He is the ONLY person I know who was SOOO excited to turn 30. AND, he really likes his gray hair. He says it demands respect.

This morning Zack got up early to bring Cameron breakfast in bed. But, he had to be out of the house early today, so he ate it on the bed instead. Zack is always really good about bringing people breakfast in bed. I love that it is always cereal.

Things we love about Cameron: Funny (which is the most important thing!), great dad, awesome husband, not a very sneaky treat stealer, loves his toys, always thinking of a new hobby to get into, has way to many hobbies, very good at what he does, loves to learn, can remember anything, has great analogies for everything, kind, thoughtful, and we all LOVE him!

Happy Birthday!

happy birthday RILEY!!!

2008-05-17T09:56:00.004-04:00

Riley is { THREE } today! She has been waiting for this day for a very long time. She would ask everyday if it was her birthday. She was so excited when we finally said yes!

Since I can list more than 3 things about her that we all love, I'll do 33.
1. Has the best laugh.
2. Loves her family.
3. She gets so excited when dad comes home. She always says, "I'm so happy your home!"
4. She is B E A U T I F U L !!!
5. She loves to say the word beautiful.
6. Is Maren's best friend.
7. Wears princess dresses all day long.
8. Always wanting to help me do things.
9. LOUD! very loud.
10. By far, the easiest kid to potty train.
11. By far, the hardest kid to keep track of.
12. Loves to do make-up.
13. She inherited Cameron's "dark gift". She's into everything.
14. Loves to sing
15. Loves to dance
16. Has the best blue eyes.
17. Loud.
18. Loves to be outside.
19. Changes her clothes 30 times a day.
20. If she wants a bite of your food, she'll take the biggest bite that she can.
21. Loves Barbie.
22. Always wants to do her hair.
23. Loves to set the table for dinner.
24. She loves to go shopping with me.
25. Big chocolate milk fan.
26. Loud.
27. She can out eat almost all of us.
28. Loves to be home.
29. Loves to play with friends.
30. Sweet.
31. She loves to wear piggies in her hair.
32. She gets excited about everything. If you told her we were having dirt for dinner, she would still squeal with delight.
33. She is the best daughter and sister EVER!!!

We love you Ri, Happy Birthday!

piggies

2008-05-07T13:55:00.004-04:00

This is Maren.
She is 1 year, 6 months and 3 weeks old.
She finally has enough hair for these. {Almost, we still have a few straglers on the top.}
I put them in and got {SUPER} excited because she was old enough to have piggies.
Then I got {SUPER} sad because she was old enough to have piggies.
She looks too old with them in.
Excuse me while I go take them out and give her back the baby hair-do.

aging kids

2008-05-01T16:04:00.004-04:00

Sometimes, I fear, I am not so good at being a mom to old kids.

Give me a baby any day of the week and I will make it laugh, and play little silly games, and hug and kiss it, and carry it all around talking and singing to it.

Then that baby turns about 5 and they kinda change. Like, in a difficult way. And I don't really know what to do with them. I can't carry them around, and their chubbiness is gone so the smooches aren't as satisfying. Also, they make more noise and give me sassiness. When it comes to playing with them, I am at a loss. They do like games and I'll play one about once a month (too many games with kids makes me feel claustrophobic).

I feed them, supervise their room cleaning, help them with their homework, read them books, drive them around, and shoo them outside. I'm not sure what else to do. They're just so big. And they can do most stuff for themselves. And they're just more bouncy and loud and bored than they used to be. And it's just that they're driving me crazy most days. And, sometimes at a moment of desperation I perform the class B page 12 paragraph 5 trick that we all learned in mother school -distract the child in any way possible.

Any ideas on what to do with big, old kids that want to hang around, annoy, and don't really keep busy with toys any more?

basement update

2008-04-22T13:57:00.006-04:00

We have been working hard on the basement. It's mostly waiting on me right now. Cameron had to be "let go" from doing any kind of work on the mudding and taping. Sorry Honey, but you suck! ( and he knows it!) It's been up to me to get it done. The only time that I have to work on it is when Maren is taking a nap and when all the kids go to bed at night. It has been hard to go fast and really feel productive, since every single free minute, without kids, is down in the basement. I am only on the 2nd coat of mud, and from what the "experts" on You Tube have told me, I need at least 2 more. It's amazing what you can learn on You Tube! I'm getting really tired of doing it. So I have been calling around to see if we can get someone out to finish the rest of the mudding for me. What they would be able to do in 2 days, will probably take me another 2 weeks. This is what it all looks like as of now.

The door at the bottom on the stairs is a small full bathroom.

The 2 doors in the corner are to Cameron's man cave, and the storage room.

The part of the wall that goes in will have all built in cupboards that Cameron is going to build. It will hide that super ugly pipe sticking out of the wall and ground. We will also put a cabinet in front of the electrical panel to hide that. You'll just open the cupboard door to be able to access the panel.

The bathroom that has caused so many problems. When the walls for the bathroom were measured to be put up, it was measured for only the size of the bathtub, which didn't leave enough room for the toilet. So, Cameron had to move the entire wall back 3".
DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!
In the process, he managed to shoot himself in the middle of the hand with a nail gun. This is one of those big heavy duty nail guns used with an air compressor. He was in the storage room working from the back side of the wall and I was in the main room when I heard him start yelling. I went in there and caught the tale end of his swearing rant. (They were only mild swear words. I was proud of him for staying PG-13.) The nail went in and stuck in the bone, which stopped it from going all the way through. He kept working for 3-4 more hours. He was very tough! Until, I made him go and get a tetanus shot. He said he didn't want to get one because it was going to hurt. HELLO!! But all is good now, no permanent damage.

Sorry to all of you sick-o's out there who like blood and guts. The picture is blurry because I wasn't looking through the camera to get the shot. I wasn't about to look at it. I don't do well with blood!

a little trip down memory lane

2008-04-17T20:37:00.005-04:00

June 2006
We went to Nauvoo, IL to see Carly, Cameron's super cute sister, who was serving as a performing missionary. We met his family there to tour the city and to see some of her performances.

We left Nauvoo and drove up to Chicago to spend a few days there. I was ( I think ) 6 months pregnant with Maren and have never in my life been hotter! (temperature hot) It was hot and humid, which is so not the right kind of combination no matter what, but when your pregnant...oh man! We walked every where, went to every museum we could and saw as much as we could see before we came home. Right before we left to drive home, we went to Navy Pier and played around there for a few hours. We saw this fountain and stopped and let the boys play. We didn't have swim suits for them, so we took their shoes and shirts off and let them go. Every time the water would shoot out from the ground, Coleman would have the same face of "surprised excitement".

They played for about an hour, just running circles around the fountain. While we were sitting there, we started hearing laughing from around the whole square. EVERYONE was laughing and pointing. We started to look around to see what had caught everyone's attention. As we figured it out, I remember saying to Cameron, "Ah crap, that's our kid." Coleman's shorts had gotten so wet and heavy, they started to fall down. The best part was he had NO idea what was going on. He was having too much fun. We just kept letting him run around, he was giving such a good show.

It was on this trip that we figured out that we are NOT good long distance drivers. We got about 90 miles out of Chicago and didn't want to go any further, so we stayed in South Bend, Indiana, just down the road from Notre Dame Univ. We got to see another big landmark. It was a fun trip, but whenever I think of going to Chicago, I always think of Coleman's little bum hanging out of his shorts.

cinderella

2008-04-14T10:41:00.004-04:00

We had some people come over the other day. They wanted to be at our house with in the hour. Of course the house was a mess, so we all pitched in to get it clean. We started looking around for Riley and this is where we found her. She was all decked out in her Cinderella dress scrubbing away.
(don't look at our chairs, we haven't gotten around to getting new ones yet)

It looks like we worked her all day long.

here's a favorite!

2008-04-10T11:24:00.005-04:00

This has to be one of my all time favorite salad recipes. Cameron and I L.O.V.E. it! It is the perfect salad. It has some of this and some of that with a lot of YUM! I got the recipe from my friend Sarah a few years ago. Whenever we get a recipe from someone that we have welcomed into the family, the recipe is given the name of the person. So this has been named "Sarah Salad". Now, I know there is a Lion House recipe named Sarah Salad, so if you would rather have the real name, it's called Zesty Summer Salad. But in our house, we know it as Sarah Salad. So thanks Sarah for sharing all your yummy recipes!

4-6 chicken breasts teriyaki style: 1 cup honey, 1 cup soy sauce, dash of garlic; marinade overnight. Right before you make the salad, bake chicken @ 350 for 25 minutes. Cut into cubes.

{ Mix the following in a large bowl }

3 cans black beans
3 cans white corn, drained
2 cucumbers, chopped
2 avaocados, ch0pped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 of each, red, green and yellow pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
4-5 fresh limes squeezed over the top of ingredients
3 TB. rice vinegar

{ set aside }

1-2 heads of lettuce
1 bag lime tortilla chips
1 pkg HOMEMADE ranch dressing

{ how to serve }

Place chips on the bottom of plate follow with lettuce, veggies/chicken mixture, and top with ranch dressing.

**Obviously this make a TON, so invite a crowd over! You'll still have leftovers to enjoy.

a d v e n t u r e s with dad

2008-04-04T14:22:00.003-04:00

Everyday when Cameron comes home, the girls can pick up of the sound of the door faster than everyone else in the house. They run and squeal all the way to him. Then they jump all around him and stomp their feet as fast as they can until he picks them up and throws them in the air.

And this happens e v e r y d a y!

Every now and then, they will take him over and they end up on the floor wrestling, which they get super excited about. Of course, Cameron is loving every minute that "his girls" love it when he comes home to play with them.

Then the boys. The weather was great the other day. Almost 60 and sunny. So we walked down to the playground at the end of our street. When we started home all the boys wanted to go explore the tall grass behind our house.

They must have been out there for over an hour. As Coleman said, "we were having an adventure."

They are checkin it out.

They had to jump over the big puddle of water and mud (while Cameron stood in it and carried them over).

Coleman found what you might think is a stick, but really it's a light saber.

He's using it to chop down the grass. With awesome light saber sound effects, of course. (why is it that boys can do really good sound effects, for EVERYTHING!)

I would have loved to have known if he was defending the "dark side" or if he was fighting as a Jedi.

Good thing it wasn't a real light saber.

Here goes the light saber stab that makes everyone and everything within a 2 foot radius blow up.

2008-04-01T18:52:00.003-04:00

This is the cover of a booklet that Zack had done in school about President Bush. It talks about where he lives, who his dad is, what would he do it he met the President, etc. Zack has also been coming up with weird little phrases for things. His newest thing is to the end everything with "...and a donut". I'll say, "OK, let's go to Target." Zack will finish it with "... and a donut." Makes NO sense to me what so ever, but I still laugh every time he does it. So on the front of this, he wrote, "I need some back up and a donut."

2008-03-29T10:19:00.010-04:00

our little obsession with p i n k

Riley is obsessed with pink. She thinks she has to wear it, eat it, drink it. And it has to be just the right kind of pink to fit her mood for that day. Some days, she will "allow" the dark pink shirt to be worn, some days it's the light. But if it's not pink, watch out.
So this morning, while I was getting ready, I kept hearing that certain clunking sound going into the little cups that we keep at kid level, mostly so they can carry around cereal or some kind of other treat in. I KNEW, just by the sound, that she was into the easter candy. I went downstairs and she had picked out all the pink jelly beans and was putting them into her pink cup. Just for fun, I put a yellow one in there and I instantly was at the bottom of her friends list. I knew then, never to mess with the pink!

men at work!

2008-03-20T20:10:00.006-04:00

We are finishing our basement! We flew out Cameron's brother Dallin to help with the framing and help Cameron to go fast. We are basically making it one big room. It will have a full bathroom, along with the rooms that we did during Christmas, which are Cameron's man cave and our storage room. There are a couple of spots that I'm having Cameron build some built in cabinets and bookcases. We are excited to have that space, mostly for the kids to go and be loud and run all they want without running into anything.
The guys took out the bottom part of the stairs that we are opening up to the room. Zack and Coleman LOVED being able to hit holes in the wall with the hammer. Then Dallin decided to punch through the wall. Coleman LOVED it! He just kept saying, "that was awesome"! Then Cameron had to head butt the wall.

{ Look at Coleman in the background }

They've been working all day and have the whole room framed.

2008-03-13T12:36:00.003-04:00

Is it April 13th?

Me: Why are you sad Coleman?
Coleman: Is it April 13th?

Me: No, it's March 13th.
Coleman: Does that mean it's a bad luck day?
Me: No. Did you mean friday the 13th?
Coleman: I don't know. But if it's the 13th, then I can't play X-Box because it's a bad luck day.
Me: Who told you that?
Coleman: pointing towards Zack

2008-03-10T14:59:00.011-04:00

Create inspiring, noble & righteous goals that fire your imaginations & create excitement in your heart.
Joseph B. Wirthlin

I finally feel like I'm getting some things done. Once I get the enrichment birthday dinner out of the way, I think more things will also come together faster. When we moved into this ward, we found out REALLY quick how bad it was suffering from lack of people and "normal" people. I hate to say that, but it really is one of those "mission field" wards. When we moved in, we went to church the first week, the next week before church they called me as the 2nd counselor in the RS presidency. I feel like there is a lot of pressure to make enrichment nights good because NO ONE shows up for them. Last activity we had, 4 people showed up. Talk about tough crowd! Since I can't do things the easy way, I've made everyone an invitation and I'll probably be delivering half of them myself to their homes.

We will also be finishing our basement next week. Cameron's brother, Dallin and his family are all coming out. Dallin is a speed framer and he's going to help Cameron get it done fast! (right Dallin!) We went through and got everything priced out - that was a job! But we have a budget and we are sticking to it!

This is part of the basement that Cameron and his dad did during Christmas. Cameron got his man cave back. Cameron even got me a plaque for it! Because I was excited to have that space as part of the finished part, but I love my husband A LOT! (I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes when he gave it to me.)

Jim built all of these storage shelves, which I love!

I got the boys room painted and I'm half way through making them real bedding. They have always used little quilts or old sleeping bags. Not because of us - in our defense - they liked it that way. They should soon have matching beds! Pictures to come for sure after that mountain has been climbed!

I also set up blogs for the kids. Since I am always on here, I figured it was a good way to do a journal for them. I am hoping it will be easy to keep up with since I haven't been very good about sitting down and writing things in their books. And typing is just SO much easier and faster! At the end of a year I will blurb it so they will have it for them. And then for us, I will just combine it all into one book.

So here's to my goals for the next month or so!!!

2008-03-06T17:30:00.006-05:00

As we were leaving CiCi's, our favorite pizza joint, the boys talked Cameron into getting them something out of the "junk" machines. So they got these nasty teeth things. Apparently they were really tired coming home and fell asleep. Somehow, before they fell asleep, Zack came up with the name"boober teeth". The next day Coleman was asking me what boober meant. I told him I didn't know and that he should go and ask Zack, since he came up with the name. Then Coleman said he didn't need to, he already knew, he just wanted to know if I knew. So I asked him what it meant. He said that a boober is a killing pig. Ok!

2008-02-26T11:36:00.013-05:00

2008-02-22T10:05:00.026-05:00

Lemon Blossoms

I was looking on the Food Network for a recipe for rolls from Paula Dean and came across these. I remember having them from someone who made them for something, but I don't remember who or where. (If it was you, and your reading this, I need to know who you are.) We had the missionaries over (for the 2nd time this week . . . long story) I forgot to get stuff for that much needed sweet ending. But, I had all the stuff for these and decided to make them. Yummy!

18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 8 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. (Just watch them, it would be so sad to lose some ) Turn out onto a tea towel.

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

Because of what I had on hand, I used a lemon cake mix instead of a yellow one. Still very good!

2008-02-21T14:14:00.004-05:00

What would you do?

When you run out of pajama pants, just wear a shirt instead! Problem solved.

2008-02-14T12:09:00.007-05:00

{ click on image to make bigger }

2008-02-11T15:25:00.001-05:00

we're having a snow day . . . WHY?

i think it's because the teachers are being lazy!
it is bright and clear. a rare cleveland day in february! cleveland averages 202 cloudy days a year. (we live here why?) it hasn't snowed since yesterday evening and there isn't even that much snow on the ground. you can still see our front yard in all it's dirt clump glory. i sent zack out to catch the bus this morning, turned the t.v. on to catch the today show and there it was, the alert on the bottom of the screen that school was canceled. It's like every mom's nightmare, every kids dream! so i went outside, told him to come back in. he was just standing there, all alone at the bus stop. i felt like a bad mom to get my kid dressed AND out the door (gasp) ON A SNOW DAY! the weather "people" say it's going to be like this till the end of the week. be like what? happy, sunny, cheerful, not-at-all-gloomy. i'll take it! 4 kids and all!

2008-02-02T11:27:00.002-05:00

my favorite teachings of the prophet gordon b. hinckley

(picture by becky higgins)
today is the funeral for president hinckley, and it's been neat to see on everyones blog their stories or favorite things about him. he led the church for 13 years. he pushed the expansion of the church. he was the prophet who went to byu and encouraged us to make the jump from mediocrity to excellence, and to walk a little taller...and with those words changed the course of my life. he was the prophet while i was a missionary and I testified daily that he truly spoke with the lord and was leading the church as his mouthpiece, and feeling the spirit confirm that again and again to my heart and to those i was teaching.

my favorite quotes by president hinckley are: "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

“Before I married her, she was the girl of my dreams,” he said. “She was my dear companion for more than two thirds of a century, my equal before the Lord – really my superior. Now in my old age, she has again become the girl of my dreams.” President Hinckley said he has seen too many marriages end in tragedy because of arrogance and degradation. In his estimation, if men and women were to do whatever it took to ensure the comfort and happiness of his or her counterpart, there would be little or no divorce. “Arguments would never be heard, accusations would never be leveled, angry explosions would not occur,” he said. “Rather love and concern would replace abuse and meanness.” In President Hinckley’s 67 years of marriage, he could not remember one serious quarrel or argument with his wife. The prophet pleaded with the men of the church “to look for and nurture the divinity that lies within their companions.” He said that harmony, peace and enrichment of family life are results of such treatment. “The cure for most marriage troubles does not lie in divorce; it lies in repentance and forgiveness, and expressions of kindness and concern,” he said. “We can live together in the God-given pattern of marriage and accomplish that which we are capable, if we will exercise discipline of self and refrain from trying to discipline our companion.” President Hinckley said women are endowed with certain divine qualities and that men should give them the opportunity to express their qualities and talents. According to President Hinckley, Sister Marjorie Hinckley summed up her gratitude for her husband’s encouragement in one statement. 'You’ve always given me wings to fly, and I’ve loved you for it,' she said"

i am going to miss his bright optimism and expressions of love. his encouragement and true christianity. but i am so happy for him! i tried to imagine his reception in heaven and i thought it must've been glorious! and to be with his wife again! he expressed his lonliness these past few years and i'm so happy they are together again. my favorite quote of all time was said by sister hinckley, and i think it is especially applicable and true of the hinckleys entrance to heaven:

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenck's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." -marjorie pay hinckley, wife of the prophet.

i am one of millions who will miss him.

2008-01-30T09:22:00.002-05:00

Ten Down, Zillions To Go!

First off, this isn't Stephanie, it's Cameron. This is quite probably the first and last time I'll be writing in this blog. I'm simply not as talented as my wife when it comes to archiving and sharing our family events while still maintaining the ANY interest from other readers.

My purpose for this post today is to let everyone know that, as of today, we celebrate being married TEN YEARS!

The best decision I've ever made was to ask her to marry me. And the best thing that's ever happened in my life was her decision to say "yes."

The Monday after we returned from our honeymoon, I started a new job as a phlebotomist (drawing blood) in a hospital in Odgen, Utah. It was part-time work, and my shift went from 4-8 am (so I could still go to class at WSU). Every morning, at about 3:15, Steph would get up, cook me some pancakes and drive me to work. It was almost a year until I started a full-time schedule from 3-11 pm. She started our marriage with that kind of love and support and has never stopped. She's a great mom to our children, she makes me laugh, and she makes we want to be a better person. Happy Anniversary Honey! I love you!

Now, hopefully she checks her own blog today and sees this post.

{ Now it's my say! }

So, there I was, getting ready for our weekly district meeting, when Elder Pedersen walked in. I remember my first impression was that he looked like a good missionary and he spelled his name weird. He shook everyone's hand, sat down then started in with all the missionary business. (Cameron and I served in the same mission in Boston, that's how we met!) He went through a bunch of things, then he stopped mid sentence looked at me and said, "You're intimidating!" WHAT!! I just thought, whatever, you don't even know me. I was so relieved a week later when I was transferred out of the area. But, a few months later, we were back in the same area. I got to know him a little better, but then I was transferred out again after about 2 months. Then my last area before I went home, he was the zone leader there also. This also happened to be his last area, we were going home on the same transfer. We actually became really good friends at this point. Since it was our last month in the mission field, we had "competitions" for everything. Who could teach the most discussions in a week, who could have the most hours out, talk to the most people, etc. I usually won! He'll probably remember that differently, but I'm right!
{ These were all the missionaries going home at the same time. }

We went home - I went home to California and he went home to Utah. We left our missions thinking that we would most likely never see or talk each other again. But, then I called him for something and that got things started. When I went out to Utah to go to BYU, I went up to see him one night. I picked him up from work, we went to his house and I met his family. I was so impressed with everyone (except for the "interview" by his dad. Thanks Jim that was fun!) I think we ended up staying there most of the night. Then we went for a walk, and that's when we . . . kissed. WHOA! That was weird. It was fun, but it was weird. I always tease him that he did that really fast. And he always says that he knew what I wanted. Part of the weirdness was the whole time we were kissing, I kept thinking, I'm kissing ELDER PEDERSEN!

We were engaged 38 days after that. We were engaged August 12th and then he left August 26th to go to Jerusalem. He came home in December and we were married Jan. 30th, 1998. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple and Cameron's grandpa sealed us.

Since then, we've had:
4 kids
4 homes
11 jobs
3 degrees
3 cars
countless fights
countless makeups
many "I'll hide, you come find me" games
a lot of laughing

I'm not quite sure how we made it through the first 20 or so years of our lives without each other. If I ever lost him (heaven forbid) and had to do all these things in life without him, I would be a wreck. Cameron completes me. I talk - he listens. He drives - I tell him where to go (I'm the perfect back seat driver!) I cook - he eats it. I'm always cold, he's always warm. I'm afraid to spend money - he isn't! I need a new table - he makes one up in a few days. My car is making a funny noise - he's my handy mechanic to the rescue.

Even though you spell your last name weird, I'm glad I get to share it with you.
I'm glad I said yes too!
I LOVE YOU!

2008-01-23T14:21:00.000-05:00

{ Note to self: Grow eyes in the back of my head }

Me: Watcha doin Ri?
Riley: Ahhn-no (I don't know).
Me: Have you been sneaking candy?
Riley: No.
Me: What's all over your face?
Ri: Ahhn-no.
Me: What have you been doing Riley?
Ri: I neet sahtit, eeh it, uh my fate do-ey.
(Let's translate that one: "I sneak chocolate, eat it, and my face dirty.")
Me: Hey Ri, will you show me where I hid the candy?
Because I didn't know that we even had candy!

She had taken a whole bag of Rolo's from wherever I put them (I had completely forgotten about them) she then hid it behind her little kitchen in the toy room and goes in there whenever she needs a fix.

2008-01-18T17:13:00.000-05:00

Bask in my finished project BLISS!

I FINALLY finished it! I started this quilt for Maren, I think before she was even born. I did all the fabric piecing really quick and then got it on the quilt frame to tie it. I think it sat on that thing, in my family room, for about 8 months. I knew that I wasn't going to get to it, so I took it off the frame and over to a lady who machine quilted it. (Which only cost me $15.00! Well worth the money!) So she got it done and then it came home and sat on the corner of my couch until we moved, where it was then put into a box of other unfinished sewing projects. I was suddenly motivated to finish it the other night. All I had to do was the binding, which I had no idea how to do until I found Heather Bailey's binding instructions! Saved me!
Now that it's done, I don't know if I can give it to her for her to actually use!

2008-01-16T09:25:00.000-05:00

OH the HUMANITY!

Don't you love it when you put your kids to bed, to have them wake up 3 hours later covered in "stuff". It all started with Maren. We got her cleaned up, bed changed and back into bed. All of a sudden, we hear Riley following in a close 2nd. Cameron and I looked at each other with panic, like this was going to be the Pedersen Pandemic. We went and armed everyone with bowls at their own little stations. We got Riley cleaned up, and what do you know. . . both girls started losing it at the same time!!! So instead of being able to tag team them, we had to both take one. Riley just kept going all night long about every 20 minutes. Cameron ended up sleeping in Riley's room and I slept in Maren's room, so we could get to them faster. Cameron got so good that we didn't have to change Riley or the sheets the last 20 times she threw up. It was AMAZING! In the end, I did about 5 loads of laundry (it would have been more if it weren't for my large capacity washer & dryer... HMMM LOVE!) We used up every sheet in the house, all of Riley's pajamas (she ended up in regular clothes at the end) and neither Cameron or I slept a wink.

Luckily the boys didn't get sick. We had to set up camp in the family room the next day. I had the girls on both sided of me. One time I got up and I turned over to Maren and told her (like she was going to totally understand me) that if she was going to be sick, do it in the bowl. So she reached over and just laid her head inside the bowl.
I am happy to report they are both feeling better today.

When the days get long and the kids are out of control and don't listen to a word I'm saying, I'll keep telling them to just go sit down and do nothing! It's at these moments when my kids are sick and doing NOTHING, because they can't, that I'm the most grateful that they are healthy and happy little people. Because when they are aren't feeling good, I would give anything for them to be running around driving me crazy again.

2008-01-10T23:23:00.001-05:00

Give me some food . . . Dang it!

This was in our old place, but I thought the pictures were still pretty funny.

The culprit: Maren
(yes, she's a girl. and yes those are boy pajamas. Why throw out perfectly good
pajamas just because she's a girl. no one sees her in them anyway)

The routine: Hold up bowl until little scavenger goes away

Coleman: Arm hurting. Can't hold cereal much longer.
Maybe my desperate face and a few high pitch whining noises will make her move.

The sneak attack!

Zack: I don't care if it's one tiny piece of my Apple Jack's.
I'm going to pry it from your little baby hand anyway.
Riley: Hmm...I wonder who's gonna win.
Coleman: Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob Squarepants!

Ok, she won that one, back to the routine.

Uh, Coleman. . .

Maren: What? What did I do?

meet our Wii family

2008-01-08T19:54:00.001-05:00

Who knew that a little piece of electronics could be so much fun! The kids got a Wii for Christmas, and we are all loving it. Cameron and I stayed up late one night to "create" our little family. (On t.v. that is!) We think we did pretty good. We got Zack's crooked little smile, my brown eye shadow, Cameron's big eyebrows, Riley's piggies and big blue eyes, Maren's big eyes and long eyelashes. We are especially proud of Coleman's. It TOTALLY looks like him!
He has his lady killer eyes with the amazingly long, thick eye lashes. The hair do that says, "I did my hair, but I'm not going to let you know I did my hair, so I made it look like I didn't do my hair" hair-do. He also has the permanent rosy cheeks with a "I will show you no emotion" mouth.

Wii have had a lot of fun. Riley even goes around saying,
"Wii would like play!" in her asian/Riley accent.

Oh Please.

2008-01-03T14:13:00.001-05:00

We went to the store today and the kids both got fortune cookies that they were handing out at the "super quick, serve yourself, die a quick death" chinese buffet.

First of all, tell me something I don't know.

Coleman's fortune: Perhaps you've been focusing too much on yourself.

Riley's fortune: The world is not ready for your talents.

This is not telling the future. This is stating the facts. Get a new name.

2007-12-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

and so it begins!

Riley was caught playing in my makeup. She had gotten all the right things onto the right parts, until she tried to do the mascara. Instead of her eyelashes, she decided she'd taste it instead. First time, kind of cute! Next time though, there will definitely be trouble.

I know, I know...

2007-12-17T09:46:00.000-05:00

...it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Every time I have talked to someone, they have all told me that I haven't posted for awhile. It's only been 12 days! Cameron lovingly reminds that I need to post something. I guess that is how it started out, now I've been getting threats from him that if I don't post something, he will... Probably post one of those fun pictures of me sleeping that every husband likes to get. The kind when you have a really long day and you end up falling asleep on the couch, drooling with your mouth open and you have rubbed your eyes so your mascara is smeared all around...Yeah, one of those.

So here's what we have been up to...
In the three weeks we have been here, we have already had 2 house guests, Cameron's mom and his friend Ryan. That's a really good trick to get everything unpacked really fast. Invite people to come and stay with you. Then tomorrow, Cameron's parents, two of his sisters, and his youngest brother are all coming for Christmas.

Riley has learned how to do head stands in the corner. Coleman taught her. She just goes up to a corner and will hang out there for awhile upside down.

Zack thought it would be fun to have a candlelight dinner. So we did.

We've been painting, A LOT, and we aren't anywhere close to being done. I always thought that I didn't mind painting, but I have changed my mind. I don't like it, at all. Especially when you can only do it at night when the kids have gone to bed. Cameron's mom helped me paint these book shelves for the office. We painted the morning room wall. It was really bright outside when I took this picture, so you can't see the color very well. We had originally bought a darkish orangish brownish color. But I started to freak out that it was going to be to brown. So we had it retinted with a little more red. Now it's a orangish redish color. The original color I wanted was a burnt pumpkin color, but I think this turned out good and we really like it. Who knew painting could be so romantic. It took almost four coats to cover this.
I made curtains so the neighbor can't see in. Cameron helped me sew them...Yes, Cam can sew. Shhh....don't tell.

Our really boring, really plain Christmas tree finally made it up. The only thing on there are the lights. That's about all that is going to go on there this year. Next year will be it's extravagant year!

Of course, half our days are filled with figuring out those stupid Transformers. Many tears of frustration have been shed for those things. In our experience, it really does take a Ph.D. to figure them out. But, they are a 5 year olds best friend.

addresses

2007-12-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

So - I am getting ready to send out Christmas cards, and all my addresses have been erased or they aren't current. When you get a chance, email me your address. Don't assume that I have it, I don't even have our brothers and sisters current addresses. I thought this might be the easiest way to get them. If you don't send me your address, then no Christmas card for you!
stephpedersen@gmail.com

I just have to say...

2007-11-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

I HATE MOVING!!!

but on the up side...our new washer and dryer made it and
I LOVE THEM!!!! My first load of laundry, I kept opening the door to the laundry room just to watch it spinning around. Much FUN!

here's what we've been doin

2007-11-21T23:29:00.000-05:00

We got our house keys on Monday and we have been doing stuff ever since. The poor kids haven't been to bed before 10:30 since Sunday. Last night it was about 12:45 when they finally got in bed. Whoops!

Cameron installed the garage door opener. Then he put on epoxy finish on the floor so it won't get stained and it's easier to clean up.

Zack helped me vacuum the floor. Maren was body slamming
the cord the whole time.

This is the before of the laundry room before it was painted.

This is the after.

We took a break from unpacking the few things we have moved up to watch the house being built next door. The whole house was framed in 2 1/2 days! This is the reason why it's going so fast. Have you ever seen the Amish build things? They don't have a lotta style, but they've got a whole lotta fast!! There were about 20 of them out there today. By the end of the day, they had the whole 2nd floor done.

The girls were totally fascinated watching them.

The boys had a little to much fun wrestling with Cameron. It ALWAYS ends with someone getting hurt. Zack was the lucky one this time. He and Coleman bonked heads and Zack ended up with a pretty good black eye. It is so swollen, he can hardly open his eye. Nice way to start at a new school!

We had all our appliances delivered today. Almost. We were scheduled to have our washer and dryer delivered today, but who knew we would be the first delivery at
8 am. We missed them by about 10 minutes and they wouldn't turn around. So now we have to wait until Saturday.

We were trying to entertain the kids while we installed the microwave, and this seemed to be the best attention getter. Watching a movie inside the box.

final walk through

2007-11-15T14:48:00.001-05:00

We had our final walk through this morning. We went through with the project manager and put little pieces of blue tape everywhere. In some ways I started to feel bad telling him everything that needed to be fixed, like they did a bad job. But, that's just part of the deal, right? So we inspected EVERYTHING. Even the temperature of the water. We are really excited and can't wait to move in. We close tomorrow, then we get our keys on Monday and move Saturday.

This is the study just off the entry.
Maren is helping by pulling the blue tape back OFF. So when the guy wasn't looking, instead of him putting the tape on the places that needed, I'd take the tape away from Maren, rip it in half and put it somewhere else that needed it.
Foyer as you come in.This is the dining room. Let's give a big "OH MY" to the chandelier. That sucker is comin down first thing. We will probably use this as a small living room or something. We wouldn't ever use it as a dining room, we are not formal type of people to need a formal dining room.
Our room.
Kitchen and morning room.
Morning room.
Family room.

moving on

2007-11-13T21:49:00.000-05:00

A couple Saturdays ago we had a garage sale and we got rid of ALL our baby stuff. To answer your question, YES WE ARE DONE!!! It was a little bit sad to see our stuff move on to different homes, but it also felt good to get that stuff out. Lindsey had come over before they moved and bought a lot of our baby girl clothes. It's been fun to see them relived through Olivia. Keep posting those, Lindsey. This, sadly, didn't get used much. It did go to New York City with the Larsons.

It also made a few trips to the elementary school to pick up Zack.
This was our first baby purchase when we were having Zack. I went to Babies 'R Us and picked out the fabric for it. Cameron made the footstool. If you could count miles rocked on that thing, it would be thousands.
This swing is another thing that would be interesting to see how many "miles" were put on it. All of my kids took their naps in it until they were about 6 months old. They used it up until the time that they could stop themselves from swinging by grabbing onto the bar.Oh, the Bjorn. I don't think that I can count how many times I would put a kid in there and end up with puke running down the front of my shirt after 5 minutes. Good times, good times!
The jumper. Many scabbed toes came from that thing. Coleman especially. He would jump really far forward and then let himself swing backward. He would do it for hours.We bought this for Riley because she took forever to walk and was doing some crazy crawling thing. We thought that maybe this would help her figure it out. She was hilarious in this thing. She would run from one end of the house to the other. Once she hit a wall, she would do a 3 point turn and go for the next wall. NEED I SAY MORE???

By the way, not to turn this into craig's list - we haven't sold this yet. So if anyone out there is looking for one, I have one that I will sell ya!

The toy buckets. Cameron made this, but we copied it from IKEA. Since the day we sold this, the kids think that they don't have anymore toys. It's more like they just can't find them. I dumped everything into a big bucket and they have to dig through everything to get to whatever it is they are looking for. I was needing a toy holder thingy upgrade. I was tired of the primary colors. Once we move, I have big plans for Cameron to make me something else for the toys.

This was the toy room in all its glory. This is the one room that I am going to miss having. It was nice having it just off of the family room so the kids were close to the toys and also to where we were.

I know those things are just things, but it's a little bitter/sweet saying goodbye to them. After the garage sale, Cameron went to Costco and bought a garage door opener with the money we made from everything. I hope that it will give us just as many fun times and memories as all this other stuff!

TAGGED!

2007-11-13T14:52:00.000-05:00

I was informed last night by my husband that I needed to update the blog because he was getting tired and bored. Since Jen tagged me forever ago, I guess I better get it done! She did the eight things about you, but I can't sit here and think that long and figure out 8 things about myself, especially with Maren pulling at my arm. Does that usually mean they want attention? I took this list from somewhere else, it was way more straight forward and I could answer it quick! I hope that doesn't make me a party pooper!

Job's I've had:
paper route (best job ever, kind of) I basically got paid to exercise every morning and I only had to work

an hour a day and I still had more money than my friends. Sac., CA

Sears repair operator, HATED that job, Provo, UT
District Court Officer, Ogden, UT
Juvenile Court Probation Officer, Ogden, UT

Movie I could watch over again:
How to lose a guy in 10 days
That's about the only one I would take time to sit down and watch again.

Places I've lived:
Fargo, ND
Fair Oaks, CA
Provo, UT
Boston, MA
Plymouth, MA
Nashua, NH
Ogden, UT
Cleveland Hts., OH
Painesville, OH (in 11 days!!!)

Favorite TV shows:
Heroes
Lost
House Hunters - HGTV (I don't know why!)
30 minute meals

Places I've been on Vacation:

Usually home to California or Utah to see family
2-3 hour little road trips around here

Favortie food:
mexican
Good BBQ

Places I'd like to be:
On vacation on my own private anything - island, boat, mountain, etc.
Rome
Greece
anywhere with Cameron with NO kids
should I go on....

Tagging: (who hasn't been!)
Brynn
Lindsay - now you have to start your own blog!
Sonali

I have sad news

2007-11-08T21:38:00.000-05:00

For the last 5 1/2 years that we have lived in this house, we have come to know some great friends: some that will be friends for life, some of which we have fond memories of, and some that we will talk about for years to come. Sadly, tonight, one of those friends has passed on (I HOPE!!). This particular friend, we'll call him Too Many Legs (TML for short), lost his life from multiple injuries. There was an unfortunate accident with a Spiderman shoe. He has called our basement home for the past 5 1/2 years and every once in a while he would come out to play. We were happy co-existing in the same house as long as he was respectful of our things and would leave as soon as we needed to use OUR basement. Unfortunately, tonight he didn't play by the rules. TML decided to venture upstairs and see what was going on. When he didn't leave after having multiple things being thrown at him, I knew it was time to say goodbye to our friend. I let him live for as long as I did because Cameron kept telling me that he ate spiders. It was a toss up on which one was worse. So TML won because of Cameron's spider trick. After about 10 minutes of deciding how I was going to do this BY MYSELF, TML and the Spiderman shoe duked it out. Now, this is where the "I HOPE" of he has passed on part comes in.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BODY IS!!!!!
I am freaking out!! Either he is seriously wounded and went to go DIE somewhere, or he is planning his revenge. If he did go die somewhere, it is probably somewhere where a certain 1 year old will come crawling up to me tomorrow with it dangling out of her mouth. If he's planning his revenge, he's hiding out inside a shoe. Or, he's going to come and find me tonight in my sleep and sleep somewhere on top of me. Ok, I'm done, I'm grossing myself out just thinking about it!
Just for your own information. He has 30 legs and not 1, but 2 sets of antennas--one in the front and one in the back! Uh...YUCK!!! For more personal enrichment on this lovely topic, go here.

2007-11-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest on the house. Kitchen is in, bathroom vanities in, floor minus the carpet are in, everything has been painted, trim and the railings are in. 10 days left!!

pumpkin whoopie pies

2007-11-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

Why is a whoopie pie called a whoopie pie? If you think good old whoopie pies can't get any better, just wait until you try these. The month of November would not be complete without these!

Enjoy!

2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 TBSP pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
FILLING:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar
Heat the oven to 350. Beat the eggs, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. stir in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture a half cup at a time, blending each time until smooth. Drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet, using the back of a wet spoon to slightly flatten each mound. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. For Filling: Beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the powdered sugar a half cup at a time, until the frosting is spreadable. To assemble the pies, turn half of the cookies bottom side up and spread a generous amount of cream cheese frosting on each one. Top them with the remaining cookies. Make 10 to 14.

ghost cupcakes

2007-11-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

Here are the instructions for the cupcakes.
SUPER SIMPLE!!!
Just make regular cupcakes. Frost with chocolate frosting, then roll it around in crushed up oreos. Stick a Nilla Wafer in the back-ish part of the cupcake. (I wrote r.i.p. on mine with a sharpie. Don't worry, it's non-toxic) Then fill a bag with Cool Whip. If you are using a plastic bag, make the hole somewhat big, not huge, but just the right kind of big. Or, if you are using an icing bag, whatever they are called, don't put any tips in it. Then just pipe a little ghost on there and stick mini chocolate chips in for eyes. VOILA! Next thing you know, you'll have little four year olds slappin' your bums! (go down to Coleman's birthday if that sounded a little weird)

trick-or-treating

2007-11-01T15:46:00.001-04:00

HALLOWEEN!
When else do you get to dress up as a chick, a chicken, a mummy and Anakin Skywalker. I let the kids choose what they wanted to be for Halloween this year. Riley was watching a video about a farm, so she was on a chicken kick. Zack wanted to be a Mummy, except he really wanted to just have toilet paper wrapped around him. Umm, no thanks! Instead, I died some fabric in coffee and let it sit for hours and then cooked it. Maren, she really was just the left overs of Riley. Coleman, he actually couldn't ever decide what he wanted to be, so he got the left overs from last year. I have already (without them knowing, of course) gone through and thrown out half of their candy. It's just better that way, then there isn't sucker drool everywhere, or "can I have a piece of candy" every 5 minutes.
These were the pumpkins that Riley and Coleman made for Riley's preschool.

Coleman's 5!

2007-10-31T20:31:00.002-04:00

Coleman turned 5 yesterday. He has been so excited for this day for a very long time. He started the big count down when there were about 20 days to go.

He had preschool in the afternoon. His class gave him FIVE claps for turning five.

We brought in cupcakes to share with his class. One kid even told me that
they were the best cupcakes that he had ever seen or tasted. Then he gave
me a "way-to-go" slap on the behind. He was probably FOUR!! Can we say
way to much Monday Night Football.
THE LOOT!
Mostly Transformers--the new obsession. We have moved on from Star Wars.
After Coleman opened his presents, we went over
to Dick's and the boys climbed the climbing wall.
Zack made it half way up, Coleman about 10 rocks up and Cameron made it to the top.

We came home for cake and then it was off to bed.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLEMAN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Today is also my mom's birthday. We love you and hope you had a great day!

House Update

2007-10-29T14:35:00.000-04:00

We went up to the house yesterday after stake conference in Kirtland. We were really hoping that when we drove up we would see a driveway, and we did!! That was the one thing that we were the most excited about getting. We really didn't want to go the whole winter without a driveway. The cut-off was the end of this week, and they weren't sure that they were going to get to ours, but they did. Maybe constantly bugging them about it helped to fuel the fire a little bit.

Also, while we were there, one of the sub-contractors for the floors was there putting the vinyl flooring in. I could have sat there and watched him put the floor in until he was done. He was working really fast. Plus, he was giving us pointers on what to do when we do wood floors in year or so. They also got all the priming and
painting done. The trim work will be started this week and maybe the
kitchen cabinets will be hung.
Every week when we go up there, it seems like they have been working so hard to get things done. Not a typical Cleveland trait. Usually, everyone goes SO slow and they only do things on their time frame. We are down to only 3 1/2 weeks of being renters. Yea to that!
Cabinets, railings, vanities, sinks, and trim are just waiting in the garage.

The guy had just barely rolled out the floors and was cutting it to size.

girls pictures

2007-10-22T18:15:00.000-04:00

Here are the latest pictures of Riley and Maren. The boys had a primary party/program practice on Saturday. To pass the time, I decided to go
and take the girls pictures. Plus, I wanted to take Maren's ONE year old pictures,
so it was the perfect time to go and do it!
Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!

the house

2007-10-21T19:52:00.000-04:00

Well, we haven't given an update on the house for a couple of weeks because a train carrying butane and alcohol derailed and then exploded, causing a 30 car pile up. It happened close enough to the development (~500 yards) that all the roads coming and going were blocked off. They also evacuated the entire development because of toxic fumes and the fear that more of the train cars were going to blow up. So nothing was done to the house for the rest of that week. But that was pretty exciting!

They started this last week and were able to get all the dry wall hung and most of the taping done. All of the cabinets, kitchen island and vanities have been delivered and are sitting in the garage. It is starting to look like a real house. It has been fun to see it go up in stages. We booked the moving truck and are moving everything on the 24th of November, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Cameron's mom even called and said that she wanted to come out and help with the kids. OK!!! We are excited she is coming, she will be a BIG help. I still haven't started packing. At this point, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with everything that has to get done that I don't know where to start.
Any suggestions?

This is from the family room into the kitchen. The morning room is on the
right and the laundry room is in the left hand corner.

This is our room. We have plant shelves. I'm not good at keeping plants alive, especially ones that live above my head. We may have to rename the shelf up there. Maybe to something like "Cameron's crap corner", since I know he will be stashing stuff up there. When it was just studs, I'd walk in the room and he would just be sitting up there. I could see wheels turning.

Foyer.

maren is ONE!!

2007-10-14T22:52:00.001-04:00

Maren turned ONE today! I can't believe that it has been a whole year since she

joined our family. I was so excited for Riley to have a sister and that they would be so
close in age. She is so much fun to have around and has added to the excitement of
the family. She is funny, smart, sweet and VERY cute! We all adore her and feel blessed
to have her as a daughter and a sister.

fun things about Maren at one:

favorite toys: anything small enough to fit in her mouth, paper, cars
favorite food: squash, sweet potatoes, paper, her bottle, the other kids chocolate milk
she loves to: dance, chase the other kids, climb the stairs, be sung to, cuddle, SCREAM!
she hates: the car, people touching her face, anyone to tell her no, (especially when she
screams)
favorite songs: love at home, wheels on the bus, popcorn popping, itsy bitsy spider
favorite book: goodnight moon

five weeks and counting

2007-10-09T19:18:00.000-04:00

We went to our "pre-drywall meeting" today. They said they are bringing in the drywall tomorrow and we should be handed the keys in five weeks. YEA!!!!! That means the whole process only took them 10 weeks. Pretty cool!
While we were walking through everything today, the site manager showed us some spots that have to get repaired because, as the boys would put it, "robbers are stealing our stuff." There has been a pipe that they have had to fix 3 times because someone has been going in there, breaking it off and stealing it for the copper. I guess that is one good reason to go through a big developer that basically owns the home until they give you the keys, then we aren't paying for anything to get replaced.

we're getting there

2007-10-07T20:48:00.000-04:00

The siding is half way on and the electrical and plumbing are done. This week we are meeting with the project manager and doing a walk through before they do the dry wall. They have appropriately named it the "pre-drywall meeting." This is when we will find out our firm closing date and I guess be able to see what other neat tricks they have for us. I suppose now I should start packing. UGH!! Anyone want to come and help? I will pay kindly with meals, treats and babysitting!!!

2007-10-04T13:33:00.001-04:00

This picture totally cracks me up! Riley had started crying about something, I don't even remember what it was. Most likely she was told to stop tearing something up, or stop drawing on the walls, or not to eat the diaper cream, who knows (she is the child that we refer to as having inherited Cameron's "dark gift" ). Whatever it was, she was REALLY sad about it. When she gets sad about something, she'll go and bury her face in the couch and cry it out.
This time, when she got up, this is what I found.

one word for you used-to be Clevelanders...

2007-09-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

Hollo's!

All this for $6.76. I know it's a lot of white card stock. But, I have a lot of white
card stock projects. For some reason, they were having a sale on their already
super cheap $1.00 a pound paper. And yes, that included all
the envelopes. I love a good deal!

it's official...

2007-09-25T16:31:00.000-04:00

...we have have the WHITEST kids at the pool. Zack and
Coleman both started swimming lessons again.

As you can see, they were jipped of the tan gene, but so were Cameron and I. None of them have a chance of ever having a tan. I always got mad because my friends would always have these great tans, and here I was, either stark white or painfully red because I thought that I didn't put enough baby oil on. Or, Crisco, remember that?! Yuck!! And bad, very bad. Obviously that was in the 80's when that was cool.

The boys had a lot of fun though. They love being in the pool. I don't think
there was ever a moment that Zack wasn't smiling.

He also thought that it was the coolest thing that he got demoted to the previous level. He can't float, so he has to go back. But look at the kid, all he is, is skin and bones, how do they expect him to float. It didn't matter to him that he couldn't float because that means that he and Coleman can be in the same class together. Whatever!

It is so hot and humid in the pool area that you are sweating just sitting there. Poor Riley has the worst gene of them all, sweating while doing nothing. That must be a Pedersen gene. :) She was so hot and miserable by the end that she just lost all her cute composure. Her bangs were stuck to her forehead and there were beads of sweat on her nose. All she wanted to do was go home!