Twas the night before...

Christmas and Ashlyn's stocking is finally done. Yippee!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night ( I am exhausted)! Love to all of our family and friends that we can't be with this holiday season. Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Four...

Four little blessings sitting under the tree. I'm not going to lie, trying to get a nice picture of all four of my kids together was painful. The boys are still mad at me about it. But they are cute and they are a blessing to both Mark and I. Even if they do refuse to give their talk at church and escape from primary..coughcoughEthancough.

Five!

Five years ago, five days before Christmas, I got my present early. A healthy 7lb 8 oz baby boy. He was the best gift I could have asked for. He was the sweetest baby, always happy and always smiling. He was and is a joy in my life.

Today, Ethan requested birthday doughnuts to start his day. He loves doughnuts. He had five friends over to help him celebrate his birthday. They went on a special mission to find missing masks, had cake and ice cream and just had a blast spending time together. Grandma and Grandpa Peterson also came to see Ethan for his birthday. We were lucky and got to eat dinner at their house too. He also had a special phone call from Grandma and Grandpa Koski. We ended the day with him finally opening his presents from us. He had asked for a Star Wars Clone trooper helmet and gun. I also found a cute little magician costume for him. I was a little worried that he wouldn't like it. As he was going to bed tonight, the one present he took up to his room, was his magician costume. He asked me if we could buy black church pants to go with it. He also said he needed a rabbit webkinz to pull out of the hat. I guess I didn't need to worry. ;)

Five facts about Ethan at 5 years old.

1. Loves to make Ashlyn laugh.

2. Loves going to school and to speech.

3. Loves Star Wars, Batman, Mario, the Wii, the computer and his webkinz.

4. He is really good at making things...pictures, legos, and artwork.

5. His favorite food is spaghetti. He can eat more spaghetti than anybody I know.

Love you sweet boy. Happy birthday!

Lucky 13

13 years ago, I married this man. He is the love of my life and I love every moment I get to spend with him. I feel so blessed to have him.

Birthday...one month later.

I have had a hard time blogging this past month. Sorry these birthday pictures are so late. Look at my cute girl on her birthday. Digging into the cake and opening gifts wore her out. Thanks so much to Rachel at Made with Love and Glue for making the cute cupcake pictures for me. They turned out so awesome!

Lazy blogger...

I have no great excuses. Just lazy. Here is a picture to tide you over until I get over my laziness. :)

12 months old

Facts about our girl at 12 months...

*wearing 12-18 month clothes

* has wide little feet, wearing 4-1/2 from Stride Rite

*loves to snuggle and give hugs

*is really busy...moves non stop

*like to play pat a cake, soo big

*likes to dance by wiggline her little bum up and down

*weighs 22 pounds 6 oz.

* 301/4 inches tall

*says, mommy, bye bye, hi, ball, and lots of other jibber jabber

*signs more by clapping hands together

*holds her hands out to say all gone or all done

*loves songs and music

*still isn't sleeping through the night without eating a couple times

*sleeps in our bed and hates her crib

*loves drinking water from a sippy cup

*still loves the Pablo stuffed animal

*plays peek a boo with a blanket

*walks...practically running all over

*can point to my nose and sometimes hers

*speaking of noses, she has begun sticking her fingers in hers...yuck! (good thing she looks so cute)

*loves stuffed animals

*hugs her baby dolls

*doesn't give kisses yet

*hardly smiles for the camera or will even look at me when I'm taking a picture

*takes almost all her naps either on the couch or in the car

*loves pounding on the computer

*loves the telephone and tv remote

*hates being fed baby food, and still isn't big into eating too much other than snack type foods. she will eat some fruits and a little bit of veggies. she does love kraft mac and cheese though!

*loves being around her brothers and sister....they make her laugh(and cry)

*loves playing outside

*loves her baths

*hates getting her diaper changed and getting dressed

*loves the wii remote too

*likes pretzels, cheerios, gerber puffs, freeze dried fruit

*thinks it's funny to get her nose sucked out when she has a cold

*fascinated by daddy chewing gum

*loves other people but is so shy at first and hides her head

*tries to bite my toes and thinks it's funny

*likes to take her clothes and put them on her head or also pretends to put them on

More to come....

Look who turned one!!

The last 12 months have gone by super fast. I keep wondering where the time has gone. Ashlyn turned one this last week (birthday post to come). In some ways I feel like it snuck up on me. It feels like yesterday I just found out I was pregnant with her. Pictures of her just don't display how sweet she really is. We are so blessed by the sweet spirit she has brought into our home. While I miss her sweet newborn smell, and just holding her in my arms for hours....the little toddler she is becoming is so much fun and brings so much joy.

I have to add about this silly bear that I got to take her picture by each month. I thought it was the cutest and decided I would take her picture every 2 weeks by it. By the time she was 6 months old, I said no more 2 week pictures, just month by month. I did a horrible job remembering to do it. I am pretty sure I missed a month or so in there. The more mobile Ashlyn got, the harder it was to take the picture. When I got the bear out today to take her last picture, she was just laughing at the funny bear she had to sit by. She couldn't stop laughing at him and trying to pat his face. After the pictures, I put her down on the ground with the bear, and she picked him up and carried him around. It shows how much she really has changed in the last 12 months. What a cutie.

Flashback...silly Ethan

As I said in my last post, I have been looking through pictures of the last year. While doing so, I found these silly pictures of Ethan. Getting trumped by a new baby in the house is no easy thing. I am glad to see that he still had an awesome sense of humor. This sweet boy of ours causes us to want to pull our hair out, but he also is such a source of joy. He often makes us laugh. In these funny pictures, he had put on my sister Linda's earrings and glasses. We all just laughed and laughed. Isn't he the cutest!

Funny pictures

(Click on picture to make it bigger)

I have been reflecting lately about the last year of my life, and how much it has changed. It has been a change for good. I have been greatly blessed by this little girl who came into our family almost one year ago. I have said it before and I will probably say it again, but she has been a joy and delight in my life. Lately, she has been showing her sweet little personality...it is pretty funny. She makes us all laugh. I thought I would show some of the funny pictues of our sweet little girl over the last year.

I'm really thankful to live in a country where I have the freedom to vote.

Halloween 2008 part 2

Ashlyn was the cutest little butterfly this year. I found her costume just a few days before Halloween. I wasn't sure what I wanted her to be, I just knew I wanted it to be girly. (notice the piece of candy stuck to her bum)

She was fascinated by Ethan's candy. She kept picking it up and playing with it all. I am not sure she really knew it was something to eat. She was so funny though. She was so excited about the candy on the floor. Ethan didn't seem to mind either that she was touching his candy. :)

Zach was lucky and got to go trick or treating twice. Another friend of his came by after we got home and he went back out with him. He was loaded up on candy!

This barrel was full of the halloween pretzels that we give away each year. I dumped all of the kids candy in it and it filled it to the brim and then some. I think we have enough candy to last us a couple of years. It was such a fun halloween season for us. It's hard to believe that in just about 7 weeks it will be Christmas. Yikes....

Halloween 2008 part 1

This is the first year that Hannah didn't go trick or treating with the rest of the family. She has been so awesome about always being the only big girl when we have gone out with our friends. This year I wanted her to get to trick or treat with one of her friends. She had a such a fun night and I am so happy that she got to be with one of her good friends.

Zach and Ethan went trick ot treating with their buddies that live in our neighborhood. They love to trick or treat with each other. They brought home so much candy. I was shocked!! There is a great house in our neighborhood that gives away full size cans of pop and full size candy bars. My kids love going to that house!

My cute trick or treaters who aren't so little anymore.
While the big kids were out trick or treating, my little butterfly was sleeping. She didn't miss out for too long though. She woke up with plenty of time to hang out with her brothers.

Pumpkin carving

We have been really busy this month and pumpkin carving had been pushed to the back burner. While Zach and Ethan never asked about carving their pumpkins, Hannah reminded us often that we needed to do it. So, this year we carved our pumpkins on Halloween night. We had just an hour or so before Trick or Treating and Mark and the kids carved the pumpkins.

Thank goodness for such a beautiful day so that we could carve them outside. It was awesome for clean up and less mess in the house. They all turned out pretty cute. We didn't carve the really BIG pumpkin, but we have plans for that. I hope to show that at a later date.

Random cute baby pictures.

I wanted to post some fun pictures I took of Ashlyn this week. I've been teaching her how to dance lately and after church on Sunday we were listening to some Halloween music (I know perfect Sunday music) and Ethan was dancing, so we all decided to join in. Zach and I took turns dancing with Ashlyn. She loved it!! The funny thing about this picture is she has Hannah's $20 bill in one of her hands. (we still can't find that money)

Ashlyn had a little bit of a blow out this week. I was too lazy to take her to the bathtub and my kitchen sink was full of dirty dishes (sadly it still is), so I put her in the bathroom sink. It was just the perfect size for her, and she loved seeing herself in the mirror.

Click on this picture to see Ashlyn's little pigtails. See, she does have a little bit of hair.

I bought this witch hat for me to wear this halloween. Ashlyn has been fun wearing it. She is quite the little comedien lately. She is starting to know that she is doing something silly or funny. Putting this hat on is one of the funny things she has been doing lately. She will put it on and then walk around and run into things. Silly baby.

Halloween party

We decided a few years ago to only do big birthday parties for the kids, every other year and on the off year to do something little with one or two friends. This was Hannah's year to do something big. She was deciding between a party at the local roller skating place or to have a Hallween party at home. She has always wanted to have a Halloween party since her birthday is in the month of October.

I let her invite all of her friends and lucky for her only a couple couldn't make it. We had 16 girls at our house on party night. I am so lucky to have great friends who helped me pull this party off. They were such a great help to me. THANK YOU!!

The girls played several games. They first played a hot potatoe game with a couple of squishy skulls. One of the skulls brain squished out and the other skull's eye socket bubbled out blood. They were pretty funny and the girls loved it. After that game, we were still waiting for another girl and the girl's told a ghost story by each girl telling one line of the story. I didn't hear all the stories that they told, but I heard lots of giggles. I love listening to kids laugh!

After the last girl came, they played Mummy Wrap. They were split into teams and competed to see who could come up with the best mummy in a short amount of time. It was pretty cute to see them use their imaginations and get creative. I think that the last game they played was the most fun. It was a spin off on bobbing for apples. Instead of apples we used marshmallows and the girls had to see how many they could suck up with the straw in the time limit. They had so much fun!!
Mark and I made lots of yummy foods for the party. We had a yummy Witches Brew complete with eyeballs and spiders. Rat droppings, bat wings and blood, peanut butter eyeballs, monster toes and bloody fingers. I was surprised and happy that most of the food was gone by the end of the night.




I didnt' get pictures of all of the decorations we had, but it was so much fun!! Hannah had the best night!!

Sorry my pictures are all out of order, I am too lazy to fix them. ;)

A little imperfect quilt...

Before I had Ashlyn, I saw a cute quilt on Flickr. This is my modified version of it. I love patchwork quilts so much!! I forgot though that I can't really cut straight blocks. I cut them the same size but somehow they never match up right when I sew.



I decided I would probably use this quilt in the car this fall/winter. Despite it's imperfections, I still really like it.