This lady gave me quite the workout!!

Last week we went on a little field trip to see the Statue of Liberty. I had only seen it from the ferry when we were in NYC in 2002. McKena has been asking us to take her for awhile now, so it was a must see before we leave the area. I felt fine taking the kids by myself my only fear was driving there. Lucky I have an amazing friend that is as good as a husband when it comes to getting me places. I just blindly follow her and she always gets me to my destination in safety. What an easy life I have.
Here are all of our kids on the ferry ride from New Jersey to the statue. I think that cities are beautiful so I love NYC in the background. It was a little cold but not too bad when the sun was shining. The decent weather definitely made the trip a lot easier.

We went to Ellis Island first and learned about all of the immigrants. I honestly had no idea that so many people immigrated here. They have a great museum there. Then on to the statue. They have a small museum before hiking up. Here is Spencer doing a check of Liberty's toenails. I think they are intact and healthy. Like father like son.

We just hiked up to the pedestal where you can go out and get another great view of the city. We had wanted to go up to the crown but it was hard to get tickets and there was a height restriction so only McKena and Adam would have been able to go. McKena was upset about this but I now know it was for the best. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! I actually thought I would have been able to make it all the way, which was another 200 steps or so. Yeah right!! Just to the pedestal it was 168 steps (or 186) and let me tell you I was panting. OK panting is an understatement. In my defense I was carrying Devon and I am 33 wks. along, but come on. It was worse going down. The stairs are very narrow and I could not see my feet. I just knew that I was going to trip, drop Devon, fall on my tummy and then bounce around like a basketball. None of that happened, thank goodness!!! It was a fun trip thanks LaMonts for going with us.

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.

Maybe you shouldn't say that!!

I am not sure what has happened this time but everything has gotten much bigger much faster. I understand the concept the more kids you have the faster you show but seriously it just really seems out of control this time. So here are some things that maybe should have gone unsaid.
*Are you having twins (when I was 3 months)
*You are only five months along (come on that is more than half way, right)
*I thought you were close to being done
*As we were going to FL to stay at the Wilsons. Ryan asked how far along Amanda was. I responded about 2 wks further than myself. So he said "Now don't feel bad when she is a lot smaller than you, I just don't want you to be sad" (ok so this did not really bother me I knew he would be right)
*Another Ryan (as he was working in the ER) "Tonya I have seen so many women with really bad stretch marks, you have to be careful so that you do not get any" This was when he was encouraging me to drink less soda, the only thing that made me somewhat happy.

So here I am with #5 24 wks along. I have given up on wearing my own pants as of Sat. when I had to change midday out of the last pair I thought I could wear. I have not been able to see my feet for a while. None of this has stopped me from enjoying ample amounts of Halloween candy since I could finally enjoy chocolate again.

Honestly I am not an easily offended person so luckily most of the comments have just rolled off my back. I even don't mind when Mason pats my tummy and says "Wow mom your belly is getting big!" On a happy note I am getting great use out of all of my maternity clothes.

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!!

The girl with the sassy hair

For some time now McKena has been wanting to grow her hair long and donate it to locks of love. I am not sure who first inspiried this (I think Isabelle in Iowa) but we have since seen many of our friends doing it. So if has helped McKena to be even more determined. Last Spring she was pretty close then her and one of her friends decided to give themselves a hair cut. So now finally a year later she is ready. I was a little sad to see her hair grow, but very proud of her for being brave.

Here she is with her new sassy haircut. She loves it. I do not think she is able to pass a mirror with out tossing it and smiling at herself. The guy at the beauty school said she was so good. He claimed to be uncomfortable around children, and said McKena made him feel so comfortable. No surprise there McKena can certainly talk to anyone. We love the cute new do!!

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

Let's start somewhere

My sil Charity just posted that she will be writing in her blog once a week to get caught up. Go Charity. I could say that as well but then I would be a liar just like my little cutie Spencer. So instead I will try to post more often then every 2 months. May and June have been full and there is so much to say, however I will start with one of the highlights. Our visit from our Iowa friends the Giles. Is it because I love them so much or because I never have visitors? Not sure which. They arrived late on Monday night. My kids were waiting outside and could not contain themselves. When they arrived I felt like I was looking at a completely different family (kids sure do grow a lot in 2 yrs). At the same time I new I was looking at my great friends and nothing had changed.

We went to Philly one day. Jason and Teresa visited Independance Hall while we hung out with the kiddos. Then we all went to see the Rocky Statue which Ryan and I had not visited previously. Philly is always a great place and I do not know if we will ever see it all.
We also went to the 'sweetest place on Earth', Hershey PA. I couldn't let them miss the place that I am obsessed with. It is always a good time at Hershey and I do not think there is much that could make 9 children happier. Here is a pic of all of our kiddos minus the two babies.

What a fun few days. They were seriously too short!!! Giles thank you for making us feel loved.