I may just move to Hershey!!!!!!!!!

My younger brother came out to visit (that is another post), and while he was here we decided to make a trip to Hershey PA. It was SWEET!!! We watched a 3D movie of dancing chocolate bars complete with mist and bubbles. It has been a while since I have been in a 3D movie and I admit that I did jump when the spider came jumping at me and something hit me in the back of the leg (blast of air).
Then we took a fun trolley ride around Hershey. It is such a well-kept town, with nice parks and schools. We drove by Mr Hershey home that he built for his wife and paid a mere $57.000 for. We also drove past the first orphage that he started in the home he grew up in. He and his wife could not have kids and so they built a home and school for orphans and today his fortune continues to go to this. Amazing I love to see people doing good. To top off the trolley ride we had a special visitor and he even had a nice list. McKena could not believe that she was on the list (not that she is incredibly naughty). The kids were all given a special ornament.

I truly thought Hershey was such a nice, clean little community. I may even look and see if they are in need of a podiatrist in a year and a half. So don't be surprised if in 2010 our Christmas card has the address Cocoa Ave in. . .

HERSHEY PA

It was soooooo worth it!!!!!

This is where I was on Thanksgiving Day!!! It was so much fun and I am so glad I went even though many people thought we were crazy to take our young kids.
As the parade got closer people began crowding in all around us. I never really realized how many people there were until I stood on top of some railing to find Tom (my friend's husband) who had gone to take the kids to the bathroom. I could not believe what I saw. Now please remember that I am from a small town of 1500 so a crowd like this is slightly overwhelming to me. Oh, and speaking of Tom at one point he was not sure if he would make it back to us because the crowd was so tight. People actually handed our kids over the top to get them back to us, unfortunately for Tom people were not as willing to pass him over their heads. Eventually he did make it back much to the relief of his wife, Brenda Here is Devon not knowing anything of the excitement that is about to come his way but smiling nonetheless.

One sad part was that I was not able to stand right next to my kids and see the smiles on their faces as the parade was going by, so here are the pics. that the police officer from the other side of the barricade took. Mason with friends Adam and Trevor Lamont. They look pretty happy to me.

McKena with Spencer

Some parade highlights: All of the bands were great of course. I enjoyed this one because they added some extra jam into their music with great moves.

MILEY CYRUS!!! This of course is a highlight for any little girl.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed the old school balloons. It was just cool to see what they started with. A very close second for me was the Smurf balloon and float.

I will not claim to know Ryan's favorite however I know that he is a Snoopy fan.

Then there is the favority of everyone, Jolly Ole' Saint Nick. I do not know if it is the suit or what but this was a fabulous Santa Claus, with a beautiful sleigh and reindeer.

That recaps it. If you ever have a chance to go, do it. It is Sooooo (I could not possibly put enough o's) worth it.

I also have to give a shoutout to Louisa for all of the encouragement and advice. Thank you.

Here is the animal and his sister.

Soccer has come and is almost done for this year. This is McKena's second year playing and she improved somewhat. I still think she may be more well suited for something like dancing or gymnastics. However I think it is good to have her playing sports as well. On Friday they had their banquet. I have mentioned about how wonderful my neighborhood/community is. Every year they hold a sports banquet that is also for all citzens. It is so wonderful to see the people that don't even have children playing sports out to support the community. There was good food and dancing. I was actually excited that the kids got medals this year instead of tropheys.
Mason was known as the animal of his team. He would just get in there and go after the ball, often getting a little pushy. He didn't care if the other kids were taller than him (let's face it they always were). I loved to watch him play. He became so involved stating "I want to be the best soccer player ever" This was especially good for him because he often has a hard time being in front of others. When I signed him up he did not want to play because originally McKena was not going to play. I would say "but Mason you love to play soccer" to which he would respond "only in my backyard, mom." He really opened up.

McKena had a fun year and really began to attack the ball. She was always smiling. People would always ask if she ever stopped smiling. She loved to cheer her team on. At one point her coach told her she had to wipe that smile off of her face, and get her tough look on. We worked on her tought look for awhile but she just could not do it. I am grateful to have such a happy little girl.

2+2+2=our cute halloween family

This year I decided to once again make some of our families Halloween costumes. I didn't do it last year and so I felt the need to start again. What a chore! For the last 3 weeks nothing has gotten done except for sewing these costumes. There has been many unwiped noses, unswept floors, and unmade dinners. Now they are done and it is over. Am I glad I did it? I am not sure, but it is done and we are all happy.
Here are the two dragons. They were so cute and the bonus is that the costume was warm. Don't be suprised if you see Devon as a dragon for the next few years.

Spiderman (no I did not make it, do you think I am superwoman?) and his amazing pal Firestar. Thank you to the amazingly talented, Bronwyn for the flames at the boot and sleeve tops. Nobody really knew who McKena was however, one of my friends said that she did look like speed. Perfect compliment for a superhero.

Zorro and his Latin Lady. For those of you that knew I was making myself a red cape all I have to say is that by the time I was done my brain could no longer comprehend what to do with the red cape. Maybe next year.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

PS our kids wore their costumes 4-5 times between all of the different events so I figure all of my work may have paid off.

Mason is now 5

Yesterday was Mason's birthday. He is now 5. It is so hard for me because he was my smallest little one at birth and now he seems so big. I just want to enjoy this year, which is his last before heading off to school. I love having him around. He had a great day. His breakfast choice was again donuts, lunch chicken nuggets and dinner pesto chicken with brocoli. I am so glad that we have moved beyond the corn dogs and nuggets for dinner. It was nice to have a meal that I could actually feel good about feeding them after all of that sugar.
Mason really working to get those candles blown out. He chose to have just a plain cake with cherries on top. I really am not a cake lover and so I was glad to see something a little different.

The moment of surprise. The funniest part about this picture was that he had already seen this gift in my room one day. He sure does pull of the surprised face really well!!!

5 wonderful things about MASON

*He has really become so much more helpful since McKena went to school all day

*He is truly very sweet to his mom, he can make me feel so loved

*He has built a little bond with my old lady neighbor, they really are great friends

*He is very athletic and is LOVING soccer this year

*He is becoming a fun older brother for Spencer and Devon

Crazy about Camo!!!!!!!

So sometimes I let Mason dress himself. I love to see what he comes up with. Usually it is fine because there are not many colors to his all boy wardrobe and so there is not a lot to mismatch. The other day when he came down in this outfit my eyes could hardly register all of the camo print (can you tell even his flip flops are camo). However I was grateful that my little boy would be well hidden if he was playing hide and seek in the tall weeds.

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.

Our backyard

Our backyard has been amazing this spring and summer as all of the flowers are blooming. It is so fun to watch because everything is a surprise since I am so unfamiliar with flowers. I am always anxiously awaiting the buds to bloom so that I can see what beauty awaits us. The previous owners were obviously into a beautiful yard and they have given us much to look at and a whole lot of work to do. First off there is this cute little fish pond in the center of our backyard. We decided to take it out because it is not practical for a family of four little kids. Plus we just really need more grassy area.
Here is Ryan's grass that he is working so hard to grow. You cannot tell really well in this picture but the new grass is a completley different color of green and looks kind of funny right now hopefully we will be able to blend it a little in the next few years.
Just some pictures of some of our flowers.

No this is not the southwest, but yes we do even have a catus.
In addition to these beauties we have had daffodils, iris', roses, forsythia, azaleas, peonies. violets, and many more that I have no idea what they are. On a side not we also have our vegetable garden that is growing. I am so excited to harvest. We ate our first pea the other day so yummy.