July-My happy day

As many of you know the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. There are so many things to love about this day. I love that we celebrate all that our founding fathers did for us. I love that we have a day to recognize what a blessing it is to live in this country. Ok I also love the fireworks, food and matching oufits. When we moved out here Ryan told me that while we were here he would take me to one of the cities to see a big fireworks display. Well lucky me I got to celebrate in amazing places two years. This year we went to Gettysburg. It was a great day and we loved watching the reanactments. What a great way to teach your kids history. Of course there we tons of people dressed like this....
I mean the uniforms not all matchy, matchy like us.

For sure there were lots of cannons. Mason would curl up in a ball as they were going off, but of course that was still his favorite part of the day.

They had this fun kids battle. It was great it occupied the kids for about 30-40mins. They learned to march in rank, backwards, forwards and also to load, aim and fire their guns. Now all of you may not deem this to be skills worth acquiring for your 7, 5 & 3 years old but in the Pederson home our motto is always be prepared (not really it is "this is the happy house).

Here is just one shot of the battles. They had two battles that day. It was great throughout the whole thing someone was commentating about the different positions they had on the field and what really happened during those battles. It was a perfect activity for the day and I really hope my kids learned a few things.

At the end of the day I still had to see a great fireworks display so we drove to d.c on the way home and watched their show. We were across the river with a perfect view. What a wonderful 4th. Thank you so much Ryan!!!!!!!!!!1

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.

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.

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.

Happy New Year

I am not sure where New Years rates on my favorite holiday list. I used to sit down and write resolutions in 5 different categories. I soon learned that was not for me since my list usually was never looked at again. Now I know myself well enough to know that I work better focusing on one thing at a time. I just like one improvement at a time since nothing else in my life is one at a time. Anyway, I do love the party that comes along with celebrating New Years. The food, games and laughs you just cannot beat it. We had a great party complete with fun games, food, about 10 different kinds of ice cream, and even fireworks which I just loved. It was a wonderful night we were even Devonless since my mom insisted on keeping him. At first it was more stressful to leave him because he had only had a bottle one other time, however since all was well when we got home it was worth it. There was a slight down side to the night. As we were leaving I fell and sprained my ankle. My friend said, "At least your husband is a podiatrist" This has not helped me in the least and definitely has not made it feel any better. Thank goodness my resolution was not to start exercising any time soon.

Christmas

Here is our Christmas. Since Ryan was working over Christmas and my parents were arriving on Dec. 26th, we made the choice to celebrate our Christmas on Friday the 28th. Most people did not think that I would be able to convince my kids that Christmas was on a different day. It turned out to be quite easy since we were homebound with sick kids all week. So they did not know any different. It has been a constant discussion between Ryan and I whether to wrap Santa gifts or not wrap Santa gifts. This year we decided to leave them unwrapped due to pure laziness. It turned out quite well who knows what we will choose next year.
Each year thanks to my grandma and mom we all get new Christmas PJs. It is so fun for the kids to open this gift the night before. My mom even brought pjs for the grandparents so that they would not feel left out.
So even though it is a little late. Merry Christmas to all of you. We had a wonderful holiday and hope that you all did as well.

PS I would not recommend celebrating on a different day. Even though my intentions were good it just wasn't the same. Due partly to the fact that we went to Walmart and a movie on our pretend Christmas Day.

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.