Snow

We have really been able to enjoy the snow this year. Recently we had freezing rain and the whole yard was like an ice rink. The kids wanted to try and ice skate. They only had on real shoes of course, it was still not very successful. McKena fell and got a scrape on her hand right away. Mason learned it was much more fun and less dangerous to just slide on your belly. I didn't get any pics of the ice. These are pics of the fun snow.
Even though I don't think Spencer moved from this spot the whole time he was not very happy when I tried to bring him inside.
Here Mason is ready to pounce McKena.

Iowa we miss you

Last year at Christmas time McKena's wonderful sunbeam teachers dressed up all of the little kids like the nativity and took a picture. They put it into a frame and gave one to each of the kids as a gift. McKena has hers up in her room. Last night we were singing "Away in a Manager" and McKena started to cry. When asked why she replied, "That song makes me miss all of my friends in Iowa" she then referred to her picture. So to all of you good friends in Iowa (and those of you that have moved on), just know how much you are missed.

I am married again

This picture is kind of blurry but the point isn't for you to see my ring, but to know that I am wearing it. For about two months before and after I have my babies I am not able to wear my wedding ring. My fingers just get too fat. I usually try it on often after about the first four weeks postpartum and it finally fit about two weeks ago. For me this is even more exciting than getting into my favorite pair of jeans (I have a long time for this milestone). Not only because I love my beautiful ring, but also because I love wearing the symbol of my wonderful marriage

Devon's Blessing

On Sunday we had Devon's blessing. I was already, head bowed, pen in hand waiting to record these special words for my son. Well my other three children had another idea. Spencer is crying/screaming the entire time so I can barely hear. I decided to stand up with him and a nice man in my ward takes him off my hands so that I can enjoy this special moment. Upon returning to my bench I find Mason with a bloody nose smeared clear across his face. Luckily it was not dripping so he could wait. By the time the other children were under control the blessing was over. I am grateful it is recorded in heaven.
Ryan is such a wonderful father. I love the fact that he blesses our children. I am especially grateful for the love and support that he gives to them and me as well. Each of our children are unique and Ryan always contemplates what he will say so that he gives them a unique blessing. Thank you Ryan, we love you.
By the way for those of you admiring Devon's incredibly beautiful blessing outfit it is courtesy of my mom. My mom had made special outfits for all of my children and I absolutely love it. Thanks mom.

Family Pictures

This past weekend we went to have our family pictures taken. Our good friend Bronwyn took them for us and did an excellent job. I wish we could have done the same for them. Of course every picture has a problem it seems. This was one of my favorites because of the great backdrop and everybody is looking and most are smiling.
Ryan never likes to do couple pictures however I reminded him that this is how it all started. Sometimes it is nice to get back to just the two of us.
Here are some of the pictures that you will not see gracing our Christmas card. Isn't it
annoying when someone is making a funny face. Even more annoying when that someone is your husband. Actually that is not the only problem with this one so he did not get into too much trouble.
This picture sums up how our family was feeling by the end of the photo shoot. Did I mention that it was about thirty degrees out. I was seriously wondering if we had frozen our poor little Devon. All for the sake of the Christmas card. As you will notice it is always the mom that is still trucking.

Nicest lady in Pennsylvania

A few days before Thanksgiving I was in the grocery store with all of my children, when I encountered someone that made my heart swell. I must preface this story just a little. Since moving to the east coast I have received several not nice comments about the fact that I have four children (or three and preg.) and that they are close together. One lady actually walked up to me in the grocery store when I was preg. and looking at Spencer said "Already" I said what and she went on about how I was already preg. with another. Anyway I won't share the countless others. I am in my favorite grocery store Wegmans. Now I love this store because for one hour I can put my older two children in a nursery (which they love) and shop. As I was shopping a nice comes up to admire my two young boys saying how cute they are and how lucky I am without a single word about how close in age they are. Well she happens to see me again later after I have retrieved my other two and asks are these all yours? So of course I am waiting for her to change her mind about how lucky I am. She asks if she can take one home. "On another day maybe, but today they are all being good," I responded. Then she says "God bless you." Now I get this often. Most people seem to say it as if they are really saying you poor thing. However, this lady gave me a thumbs up as she said it. I love the thumbs up sign it is so encouraging. So thank you to the nicest lady in Pennsylvania.

Now that I have four children the question is do I feel busier? Not really. In fact there are so many less things that I can accomplish each day. I am often discouraged at the end of each day because so few things are crossed off of my to do list. I really need to learn to make my list shorter but I always have hope that today will be the day that things magically fall into place and the whole list will get done. However, at the end of the day there is no magic and the list is still only half done. The whole reason why I am not able to accomplish as much as I did when I was a 'three kid mom' is because my list of 'I am always doing' has become longer. Here is my list.

1. I am always changing a diaper or going myself (I am postpartum you know).
2. I am always washing my hands, 18 times in one day. Is that a lot? I know I am lame for counting but I wanted you to have the facts.
3. I am always sitting down nursing, reading, looking at someone's blog. . . . . It just seems to be harder to get things done in this position.
4. I am always cleaning the kitchen or at least wishing that I was.
5. I am always feeding someone Devon, Spencer ( up until this week I was still feeding him thank goodness he has decided that he can handle his utensils on his own), or myself. This is by far my least favorite 'always'. I guess I could choose to eat less myself but that does not seem to be an option.
6. I am always able to find someone to hug, kiss, and snuggle. With a husband, baby and three kids there is always someone who wants to love mom. I guess since I am always sitting there is plent of time for this. Of course I love this 'always' on my list and hope it will always be like this.
   

I would love to hear about your 'always' list

Pumpkin Patch

A little late in coming, but here are our pictures of the pumpkin patch experience. I think this is such a fun thing for the kids. This was very similar to the pumpkin patch in Iowa (Howells) minus the corn kernel sandbox, which I really miss and the corn maze.
Poor Devon, luckily I don't think babies feel as akward as they look.
This is the first year that we actually took pumpkins home from the pumpkin patch. It was so fun for the kids to go around and pick one out. Ryan just loved these two little ducks. . . I mean squash. I love it when Ryan gets impressed over crazy little things like this. It was so exciting that we even brought one home to sit on our precious hay bale. So exciting to have fall decor.
O.K. this picture is not so that you can see McKena busta move. I did have two problems with my local pumpkin patch. First of all there were carnival rides so it took me a whole 20 mins. to explain to my children that we were not there to ride the tea cups. My second dilemna is this DJ. Who needs to be walking around the pumpkin patch with "Red Red Wine" or "Cottoneyed Joe" playing in the background. Although Ryan and I both found this quite silly I often caught us singing along.

Mason turns 4

For breakfast Mason requested donuts. So Ryan and Mason got up early to head to the store for some fresh donuts, no day old donuts for our little 4 year old. Great choice!

After breakfast it was all fun from there. He was able to have a birthday party with his little friends. It was a spiderman theme and the boys had a good time playing together, and building a spider web out of chairs and string. Then that night we opened presents with dad and had birthday cake.

Here are some of Mason's favorite things at the age of four.

• SPORT - Baseball
• FRUIT - Cherries
• STORY - Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter
• THING TO PLAY WITH HIS SISTER - She is the cheerleader while he plays soccer
• COLORS - Orange and Green
• TRAIN - Henry
• ANIMAL - Horse
• VEGETABLE - Carrots
• SONG - Follow the Prophet
  

We love you Mason!

Halloween

Look at our little skunk. Not only do I love the costume but this is also a rare picture of him smiling. What a joy.

Here we are all ready for our neighbors Halloween Party. If you cannot tell Ryan is a mechanic (boring I know). I dream of the day when our family has themed costumes however for now we are quite the collection with our little snow white, power ranger and stinky skunk.

These are their halloween shirts. What fun. I would never buy this kind of stuff for my kids so thanks mom! They had so much fun wearing them. You cannot tell in the picture but Mason's has a skull on his and he was so excited to show it to all the different guys to see if they would think it was scary.

Pay Attention

For quite some time it has come to my attention that I have a hard time paying attention to detail. Well my inability to post pics. to my blog was because I completely missed the check box to accept the terms and conditions. You know the one that says check here before you can upload. Once I noticed that it was quite simple. Anyway here is Devon.

For those of you thinking, I cannot believe the Pedersons have four kids, don't worry neither can we. Here they are visiting at ther hospital. McKena was the only one who actually cared about Devon. The boys were more interested in playing with the hospital bed.
Just a quick pic of Devon with his dad. The question is, Will Devon finally be our Ryan? He definitely is our biggest (if you take into account that he was early). I am told by many people that their biggest babies at birth are not necessarily the biggest child as they grow older. All I know is that my other boys seem to take after me so far. I guess only time will tell.

How do I do this?

O.K. my friends I am having trouble posting pics. to my blog as you can see from the lack of Devon photos. I have already contacted an expert blogging friend and I feel quite confident that I am doing it right. Although I will restate that I am quite clueless about all of this. So if any of you have had a problem and have helpful advice please let me know.

Devon

Our Son Devon Marlowe was born on Sept. 23. He came about 4 weeks early and weighed in at 6'11" and 19 inches. Marlowe is a family name on my side and Devon was Ryan's choice. He finally got to pick the name and for those of you that know how much he loves the name Bruce I decided that I could live with this one. I had a good experience although it did not compare to my Iowa experience. For one I missed my trusty nurse Amanda and secondly I missed the wonderful bathtub. I think it is sinful not to give a postpartum woman a bathtub. Come on don't they know that I have four kids and that my 2 day hospital stay is my only chance to have a nice quiet bath.

The start.

I am so excited to finally start my blog. I guess maybe it is because I like to talk and feel like I have so much to say yet no time for the phone. Here are 10 things about me that you may or may not already know.
1. I hate to drive a car with a man in the passenger seat. In fact I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have driven with Ryan in the car.
2. I hope to take tennis lessons one day so that Ryan and I can play couples tennis.
3. My favorite chore is laundry and least favorite is vacuuming.
4. After almost two years I am still slightly afraid of driving my mini van.
5. I love to shake my groove thing although I don't claim to be good at it.
6. I love to take naps.
7. I think muscular arms are hot and hope to have them one day.
8. I am afraid of jumping on a trampoline.
9. I find fireworks to be one of the most romantic things so I hate to be seperated from my husband on the 4th of July.
10. I prefer winter clothes and anticipate when it is cool enough to wear socks.
11. (I added one) I am completely unoriginal and took this idea off of someone elses blog.