On your face, or in the case

This is our new favorite thing to say.

Mason has had a little bit of an issue with being cross-eyed for a while now. Last May when he went in for his yearly check-up his sight was not as good in his left eye and so I determined that I should finally take him into the eye Dr. Well we had to wait for our optical ins. to kick in so about 8mos. later he finally went in. This is the result of his appointment. He is very excited about his new glasses and so far does a good job at keeping them on. He does say that he is kind of embarrassed because he is missing a tooth and has glasses. Those two things make him look funny I guess.

Mason birthday

I have let too many birthdays pass. At the first of this month Mason turned 6. His birthday was very easy this year. We had just returned from our vacation and so we kept it low key. I was amazed at how happy he was about it. I even forgot to decorate, I hope that does not scar him for life. I was nervous because he was not getting many gifts. He surprised me by being so excited to receive his lego sets. I had no idea he would love legos so much. Boy, I got lucky with that one.

Mason is learning how to be a good older brother and I am grateful for that. He finally seems to like playing with Spencer & Devon. He is usually a pretty easy child. At times I think he is a lot like me, except for the fact that he is actually coordinated. He loves to play sports and does well at them. He loves to play with toys. He comes to me often telling me how he has used his imagination to build something. What a fun thing to hear from my kids. I hope he always uses his imagination. Happy Birthday Mason!!

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.

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.

Here comes the dirt.

We have had a few beautiful days lately. I am sure most of you are experiencing the same changing in the weather and the random spring days that are popping up. We had a great day on Saturday. We started off the am with a little Easter egg hunt at a friends house. In the morning it was chilly enough to need jackets however by the time we got home at about 2pm it had warmed up quite a bit and the kids played outside for the next 3 hours. What a blessing for a mom that needed to get some stuff done. We even took time for a short little bike ride because it was warm enough to take the baby out without bundling. By the end of outside time we had two very dirty peds on our hands. I am not sure if you can tell from the picture, but I often wonder how their faces get so dirty. It is all worth it and nothing that a bath can't take care of.

Our poor children

I am not sure how it is for all of you, but out here in the east we have oil to heat our house. As you can imagine oil is not at a low price right now. Now let's combine this with the fact that Ryan grew up in a house where you wear your coat indoors. What do you get, not the warmest house you may come across. My poor parents we had to make some adjustments when they visited. Anyway to the picture. My kids always love to sit by the heater when the fan is on. The other day they actually decided to have a slumber party in front of the fan. Needless to say you may not want to visit the Pedersons in the winter.

Mr. Cool

So the other day we got our new camera in the mail and I was testing it out on Mason. He started doing all of these cool guy poses. I am not sure where he got these poses from. I am definitely not cool. I guess Ryan is. Anyway if you would like you can also notice our beautiful new carpet. Our old carpet was this blue, office-looking (no pile) carpet. This is so much nicer. McKena was quite upset because she thought that the carpet in her room would be a different color. I tried to explain that tan is a neutral color, however she just does not agree.

The nicest neighbors

One thing that I love about our new home is the neighborhood. From the day we moved in people have been so kind. I fill like it is my second ward. When I had Devon a neighbor brought me some frozen dinners and another took my older two kids a few nights when Ryan was working late. Our neighborhood also has parties in the park, a soccer team, a playgroup in the park and a flag football team for the guys. Our neighbors one each side of us and across the street have been especially kind. They give our children treats for every holiday (this is not always good because you know it is not McKena or Mason munching on cookies at 8pm, my cute winter clothes may have to wait until next year) and will randomly drop off other gifts such as workbooks, crayons, marbles and other random things. Anyway how does all of this pertain to this picture? The other day I was in the shower and the kids were having quiet time when McKena comes in to ask if her and Mason can go for a sled ride with Gary (of course we did have a talk about answering the door when mom is not right there). They got all bundled up and Gary pulled them around the park on a little sled ride. They loved it and it was fun to see them having so much fun on a snowy day. We are so blessed!

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.

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!