Buns, Buns, Buns

So in case if you are wondering. . . .yes, McKena did go back to school. I will not go into how heartbreaking this was for me. A month later I think I can say that I still do not feel over it. Not to mention the fact that McKena is not the same little girl that she was this summer. Just changing I guess. For her first day of school she requested cinnamon rolls (buns). What a yummy start to a sad day (for me).
Here she is ready to leave with her cute little hair buns.

The third buns comes from me working mine out that day. I work out once a week with some other girls in my ward up at the church. That was a great work out day. Just tell me this DOES IT GET ANY EASIER? (the letting her go to school I mean)

Devon is one, really he is.

On Tuesday our little boy turned one. We took him out for ice cream on his birthday, or the truth be told we took ourselves out for ice cream. He did enjoy very much the little tastes that he got. Today we had some neighbors over for cake, ice cream and presents. Our neighbors are like family to us and so it was nice to have them over celebrating this special occasion. Devon had no interest in the presents basically, however he loved the camera. It is rare I know but he actually likes to be photographed. He will probably have the best scrapbook.
Look at those baby blue eyes. I also love his curly, blond hair.

My first child to actually really dig into his cake. He must have a sweet tooth. Now to explain why it may seem unbelievable that Devon is one year old. I was sure he would be my biggest baby, he definitely was in my tummy. Once again I have been disappointed, and I am starting to become frustrated with the dead-beat Pederson genes. At one year Devon is my smallest child. I will not state his stats for fear that some of you may judge my ability to feed my baby. I will just say that as I got out his winter clothes (6-12 mos.) I cringed because I still had to roll the legs. Who knows when he will face forward in the car. Poor guy!!

Cinderella hard at work

Today I come in from hanging my clothes out on the line (which I still love by the way), and I find this. McKena is Cinderella for the day I guess. She is still desiring to earn a castle that I got for her (free on the side of the road) so I guess she took it upon herself to mop the floor. Luckily this actually needs to be done and that is one more thing I can cross off of my list of things to do today.
I am not sure if you can tell from this picture the amount of soap that she thought she needed is about 5X to much.
Did I mention it is lunch time, I have a cranky Devon, I am still in my pjs, and in desperate need of a shower. Unfortunately the kitchen is where I need to be or go through to take care of any of these things. So how long does it take a 6-year old to mop the floor is the question at hand!!

Could I be a pioneer?

OK so I probably could not deal with actually washing the laundry by hand, but I sure do love hanging it on the clothesline. Ryan put this up for me last week and I just love it. When we were looking for houses I seemed to be drawn to the clotheslines. It seems many people out here use them. Anyway I did not know it would be so easy to put one up. Who knew all you needed was two trees.

Where is Spencer?

This is our adorable little toddler bed. Someone kindly gave it to us when we were living in Iowa and Mason just loved it. Of course he did, wouldn't any two year-old little boy (or girl for that matter) love this car bed? You would think so. I guess our little Spencer is not a normal two year-old because he seems to have quite a hard time staying in it. He rarely takes naps in his bed although he will fall asleep in a heartbeat if he is in the car. He also really struggles staying in at bedtime. Often when we go to bed we will find Spencer. . . . .
In our bed most of the time. Although he has also been found. . . . .

On McKena's bedroom floor or. . . . . .
On the stairs, or even. . . . . . .
On his windowsill. Now you tell me how can that possibly be comfortable.
Of course this is what happens on those days that he refuses to take a nap that he desperately needs. I am amazed that anyone could fall asleep in the midst of a yummy meal of taco salad.

America's birthday

We had a very fun Fourth of July this year. I am crazy about the 4th. I love everything about it, the parade, BBQ, red white and blue outfits, celebrating the freedom of living here, and the fireworks (I would actually call myself obsessed when it comes to fireworks). When we moved out here last year Ryan promised that he would take me to one of the big cities for the fourth while we are here. So this year I decided to take him up on it and we traveled to Philadelphia. What better place to celebrate America's birthday than in America's birth place.
They had a fun all you can eat ice cream fundraiser down on the Pier. It was only $5 for all you can eat ice cream from all of the favs. It was packed so I am not sure if we got all we could eat, but we definitely got all you can 'wear'.
They also had a naval ship at the Pier that you could tour. The kids really enjoyed that .

We ended the night with a great parade and fun fireworks. The only problem was that it rained from about 8pm on. Luckily not a down pour but enough to be wet and a little uncomfortable. The kids actually were still really good and just continued to play and run around with their friends.

Camping

Last month we had a super fun camping weekend with our friends the Acors, Williams, and Darren Groberg (a student visiting Ryan's residency). I have really learned to love camping. As a child we went camping often or so I remember, however I prefer my adult style of camping. My new camping includes toilets (preferably flushable), showers, and running water. If I have these things some bug spray and my dutch oven I am pretty happy. I can even deal without the showers (which were lacking this particular weekend). We were able to go for two nights which in my opinion is the only way to go. There was a decent lake and decent weather. The other families had brought along their bikes which was not much fun for my kids (they still need training wheels) but was nice for Ryan and I to go on a bike ride around the lake. At one point during the weekend I was thinking that I had not had to reprimand my kids much at all. I realized it is because they just get to play all day. They also just loved being outside. It was so nice to see them playing together without fighting it probably also helped that they had other kids to play with besides themselves. It doesn't matter what the reason was I just loved the peace. My one mistake was that I did not bring anything for Devon to sit in or on. The only chance I had to set him down was in the tent.
Mason with Lauryn and Sean Williams.

Our little family on our first and hopefully not last camping trip of summer 2008.