This better be good.

The biggest challenge with waiting so long between blog posts is that I feel like I better come up with something good after all this time, and nothing seems adequate. So, I'll start where I always do: cleaning out the memory card in my camera. All of the pictures, with the exception of the first one were not taken by me nor did I have any knowledge the camera was in use. (That's how attentive I am as a parent. Go ahead, judge.)

Tess wasn't feeling great to begin with, but I ran a few errands while Kirt and the boys were doing yard work on a Saturday afternoon and this is where Tess was when I arrived home. She slept there for over 45 minutes. (On the base of our basketball hoop.)

This picture is one that I normally would have deleted before uploading, but once I saw it on the computer screen it seemed like kind of a cool picture and held more information than you might think. Here are the things I can tell about this picture and how: 1.Coke Zero can tells me we had friends over, because it's against the rules to invite the regulars over without having chilled CZ in the fridge. 2. Stack of kids books on the right side reminds me that it was a night where we were discussing/comparing different styles of illustration. A topic much more weighty than the mindless chatter that I normally tend to be involved in. 3. That paper bowl on the right side was filled with Peanut Butter M&M's, I was grateful that they were finished off that night and not all by me.
C'mon, just laugh. My kids love this stupid donkey. I typed the biblical name for this animal first and I thought it was funny, but since I flipped the bird in my last post, I thought I should tone down the vulgarity. You're welcome mom.
I think Cal got Owen to take this picture of him. Not sure if he's trying to be G.Q., top secret, or didn't realize Owen was taking the picture. I prefer the first, he tends to think he's pretty awesome. He's usually right.
I think Tess has at least 3 sticks of gum in her mouth and had not let me comb her hair yet that day, but isn't she cute? I'm glad Cal took the opportunity to capture the moment.

Cal took this one too. Pretty sure it was during one of Owen's notorious dance routines. This kid has got some moves and he knows it. I'm trying to talk him into taking some hip-hop classes. I think he would tear it up.

There you have it, hopefully it won't be another month and a half before the next post. If I wait too long I'll forget all the details of the 2 days that I attended a community college and I kind of wanted to tell you about that.

I've been had...

Last Friday my mom and I were approached by a seemingly harmless looking gal at JoAnn's Fabrics. We'll call her Sarah (because that was her name and I'm not protecting anyone here.) She was all complimentary about my darling kids, yada, yada and asked if I liked home decorating. (I was more than hesitant. Sure, I like my home to look nice, but I don't have a ton of confidence in my choices.) I reply, "Well, a little. We're still working on a lot of things, but we enjoy it." She asks a few more questions about our decor and seems very interested. She asks if she can have my contact information. Turns out she's casting for a home-decor reality show. If selected, I would have a celebrity designer come to the house along with a camera crew, *other vague details*, and I would be eligible for "thousands of dollars in upgrades." I'm ashamed to admit I was a little flattered and kind of excited.

She emailed me yesterday to say that they were "very interested in seeing photos of our place" and asked me to send them right away because they were casting in the next 2 days. It didn't take all that long, but I tried so many options: curtains opened/closed, shutters opened/closed, moved a few accessories and even switched up the furniture a bit. Took pics with all the lights on/off, different angles, the whole bit. Then I had to fish through my photos to find a picture of myself to send along. If people are going to make a decision about you based on one photo, what kind of photo do you send? The agonizing decisions were endless.

I finally made my choices and emailed the information. A few hours later I received the following email: "Hi Kady, Thanks for sending these photos over! Unfortunately it looks like your place may be too nice for the show. If you happen to know of anyone who may live in a place that is in need of designing help such as a room with a theme, very Flashy or out of control that would be great if you could pass on my information to them. Thanks again!"

To be honest, I'm not sure how to feel about this turn of events: Thanks for saying that my place is nice? (No - that's not it.) Does 'Flashy' need to be capitalized? (Off topic, but still?) Thanks for wasting my time? (More like it.) What was it about me that screamed "Tacky" when we met? (I wasn't wearing my leg warmers OR acid wash jeans.) When do you break the news that you hate your subject's decorating sense and are coming to completely re-do all their love, sweat and tears? (All these questions peppered with "Are you freaking kidding me?" were flying around in my head.)

Then I remembered the end of the email asking me to pass her information on to anyone that was in need of design help because their room was "Flashy or out of control." Can you imagine that email? "Hey friend that I love: I know that you love your jungle themed guest room, but I think it's ridiculous, so call my new friend Sarah and she'll rip it down and paint your walls beige. Love ya!"

Overall it was just another silly experience and I'm trying not to take anything too personally. Hopefully Sarah will do the same when she receives my reply email - a picture of my middle finger.

A little of everything...

Anybody else ever feel like you have nothing to blog about? Then I download my pictures and realize that the blog has neglected to mention Owen's birthday celebration (coming soon, I hope) and shenanigans like this...
I know, you're thinking, "Where is this little girl's mother while she's getting into trouble?" I have no excuse. This little girl is so girly. She has adopted a pair of my shoes that she walks around the house in all day. She does have good taste: metallic gold peep toe heels that look fabulous on her. She loves purses, baby dolls, make up, jewelry, bows and princesses. She is learning her colors, but the only sure fire answer at this point is PINK. She also has to eat on her pink plate for every meal. After 2 boys, this little one is definitely a fun change.

This is Kirt's Christmas light creation this year. Not the best pic, but another homage to the Utah Utes. Kirt had these up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.
Kirt volunteered me to come up with something in lieu of an Angel Tree for his work. They needed gift tags for people to take and purchase a gift for a charity that provides for children with cancer. But the office is 50% Jewish, they wanted something non-denominational. I know most people could bust something out in an hour, but I am not crafty. at. all. So it took longer than it should have, but it was a fun project. Families were invited to the office last Friday to help wrap the gifts and the kids were excited to go. As I pulled into the office, Kirt called and said that we were the only family showing up. Don't worry - it gets better. We walk in and a girl says, "Where are the rest of your kids?" I give her a puzzled look. She says, "Somebody told me that you guys have 8 kids." I respond flatly, "We only take the 3 cutest ones out in public." Seriously? 8 kids? I know 3 is a lot for some west-side-californians, but 8? Not to mention that Kirt looks like he's 26.

Obligatory Halloween Post

These kids really had the hang of trick-or-treating this year. There was no running in the houses this year or putting candy from their buckets back into the people's bowls. I think I only saw 1 face plant and they were all so sweet and thankful for the candy. 200% better than last year, can't wait to do it again.
Kalia goes to school with Owen and Tessa was invited to participate in their trick-or-treat event. She had a blast and they had full buckets! Still can't figure out where my pictures of Owen went. (I think my mom got some, so somebody download them for her and send them over!)I dumped all that candy into our trick-or-treat bowl and it was a good thing, because we had a TON of trick-or-treaters.
All the kids in their costumes right before our church Halloween party. Sadly, the only one I have of all the kids together. Cal went trick-or-treating with some friends so that the little ones wouldn't hold him up. He cleaned up in the candy department. So once I finish all the goodies my mom baked while she was here for Halloween, I'll be dipping into his Halloween treats. Thanks again Mom, I couldn't have done Halloween or everything else this weekend without you!

Utah at UNLV

We met in the middle with most of Kirt's family for the Utah game. Vegas weather was beautiful. We had a blast swimming, bbq-ing and eating. And best of all, the Utes pulled off a win.
Several attempts at getting pics of the kids in their Ute shirts were largely unsuccessful, but we pulled a few out of the many.
Leave it to my kids to pull a crazy face when everyone else is participating. True character showing through.

4th Grade

It's official. We have a 4th grader in our family now. Cal still let me walk him to school this morning and see his new class. The kids (and parents) don't find out who their new teacher is until the first day of school here, so there was a lot of excitement and nervousness. Luckily, Cal likes school for the most part and with his 5th year at this school, he's made some great friends. I've already had a mom call and ask if one of them can walk home with Cal tomorrow. Here's to a great year!

Disneyland Baby!

We had been waiting all year to get to Disneyland. Finally, my mom, Aunt Jenny and Isaac came to visit and we made quite the day of it. It was a great day. Although Disneyland is for the kids, there is nothing like being a parent and seeing your kids enjoy it all. It really is a magical place. It was a little bittersweet without Grandma Peterson. We know how much she loves Disneyland and I can't help but think of her as we go through the park and the shops. We're looking forward to our next trip with her.
Beginning of the day. Tessa wasn't feeling so great, but with a little medicine she was quite the little trooper.
The kids with cousin Isaac in California Adventure. The day was HOT, but the lines were short so we were determined to make a great day of it. Unfortunately, we didn't stop long enough to take many pictures.
Tessa is a wild card when it comes to the Carousel. She always wants to get on, but sometimes freaks out when the ride starts moving. She loved this one and went on it a few times while we waited for the other kids to go on the big rides.
Owen took a two hour nap in the middle of our day. It worked out nicely, because we closed the park down leaving the parking lot just after midnight. The kids were great the whole day and fell asleep by the time we got on the freeway.
The Nielsen's joined us for a bit and the girls had so much fun on Small World together. They giggled and pointed the whole way through.
Toon town. This was right before we got stuck on the roller coaster for 15 minutes while they had "technical difficulties". There was a silver lining: when we finally got off the ride, we were given a fast pass to any ride in the park. Nice!
I had my camera on the night time setting to see if I could get the castle in the picture. With the long exposure, this was the result. Looks like Owen is a hologram.

Shout out to my Utah Peeps

In case you haven't heard, Brooke White's new album is in stores now. You'll want to go get your copy because she's coming to Utah next week for a meet n greet and CD signing. Monday, August 17, she'll be at the Barnes and Noble at 7157 Plaza Center Drive in West Jordan (84084 if your using your navigation) at 5pm.
The CD has been on constant repeat in our car and home. We absolutely love it - even Tessa is requesting 'Radio Radio' as we're driving around. So get down and meet her for yourself and tell her I sent you. They've just announced some tour dates as well, so she'll be back in SLC at Avalon on Sept 26. You won't be disappointed. Seeing her live is unlike anything you've seen before.
She's also doing other dates around the country in the next few weeks, so if you're not in Utah, visit her myspace page for more details.

Summer just got cooler

We've been trying to locate one of these water slides so we were excited when Bonnie called and said that RC Willey had them on clearance. The problem was - how do we get it here from Utah? Remembering that RC Willey also had stores in the Vegas area, we called Bart and asked if he would pick one up for us. Then our friends, Josh and Gabrielle (aka Yosh and Gay) were making a trip to St. George the next weekend and agreed to snag it on their way home.
Thanks to Bonnie, Bart, Andria and the Hansens for getting this here. We've broken it out a few times and the kids are having a blast. We're looking forward to many more water days in the back yard with our friends, so give us a call if you want to come play!
Tessa is doing a great job climbing her way to the top and flying down the slide. Owen is already doing flips off the top. Cal is trying all sorts of new tricks. We're also hoping to do 'Mom's Only' day when we can play without those pesky kids getting in our way.
Grandma Leslie came down for a fun little weekend trip. We accomplished a trip to the fashion district downtown, re-planting my flower beds, kids pictures and as always, she gladly took the kids while we enjoyed a dinner without spilled drinks. Thanks Mom!

How Californians celebrate Pioneer Day

We decided to take advantage of a little lull in Kirt's work and spend a long weekend exploring California. We left early Thursday morning and drove straight to the Bay area. We spent the rest of the day and part of Friday morning at Fisherman's Wharf, a trolley ride to Chinatown, a drive down Lombard Street, and a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge. Vacations always mean food, so it included a visit to Taylor's on Embarcadero, clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl from Boudin's, Tricia's mini donuts (twice) and peppermint hot chocolate.
We have been to San Francisco at least 5 times and at least 3 of those visits were in July. We always forget that it is freezing, no matter what time of year. The fog over the bridge just seemed to add to the experience.
Chinatown was more tricky to navigate this time. The streets are lined with little nick-nack shops with merchandise spilling out onto the sidewalks. The kids had to grab at the samurai swords at every. single. store.
Friday we drove down to Santa Cruz. They have this great boardwalk on the beach with lots of rides and carnival food. (I still haven't had a fried twinkie or oreo - are they any good?) We couldn't figure out why there were so many people there that day. Parking was a nightmare and when we finally made it to the boardwalk we discovered that we were there on Free Concert Friday. The headliner was Eddy Money - let's just say there were a lot of acid wash, perms, feathered bangs and I may have seen some L.A. Gears with 4 colors of neon laces in them.
This carousel has an added feature. The riders are supposed to reach up and grab a metal ring from the arm that drops down and try to toss it in the clown's mouth. It was oddly fascinating to watch the people and their intensity as some people tried to grab 2 or 3 rings at a time.
Saturday we drove down the coast a little further to San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach. It's a long windy road down Highway 1 and most of it is along a cliff. Cal was not a fan, but it's always a beautiful drive. Sunday we stopped in Solvang, which is an interesting little Danish village just north of Santa Barbara. We had our first taste of aebleskivers (pancake cooked into a ball) and I think we'll be back on one of our food tours down the California coast.
All in all it was a great trip and ended like this. Owen and Tessa were so sweet with each other watching out for one another as we walked from lunch in Santa Barbara. I hope they spend more time like this as they get older.

Life with boys that love baseball...

Thank goodness for glass replacement companies that come to your home and take care of everything right in the driveway. I only had to make 1 trip to the grocery store like this.

4th of July

Grandma and Joni with the kids waiting for the parade to start. It's a good thing the Hooper Parade didn't start until 10:45 and we only had to walk about 50 yards to get there or we may have missed it. Perhaps the best part of this holiday was that we all slept in and got some much needed rest toward the end of our Utah adventure. (Actually Kirt did miss it, but in his defense, he worked 36 hours straight to get a big deal closed and catch his flight to Utah.)
Logan and Libby let us borrow their motorcycle and scooter and we had a blast. All the kids got to ride with Kirt or Grandpa. It took a lot of convincing, but we finally got Joni on one of the bikes and it was hilarious. After she got the kinks worked out she did great, but those first 6 seconds were touch-and-go. I don't have a picture probably because I was trying so hard not to pee my pants. Luckily for her and the house, everyone walked away safely.
Below: Cal even rode the motorcycle by himself. I didn't think he could do it, but Kirt gave him a shot and he did pretty well. Hopefully we didn't tear Jon's lawn up too bad.
Tessa is almost a year older than Redd but I think they weigh about the same. Can't wait to see Redd (and the rest of you) next month.

Welcome Home Elder Peterson

Kirt's youngest brother Sean returned from his 2 year mission inUruguay for the LDS church at the end of June. The kids were so excited and made some fun signs at Grandma Peterson's the night before. I'm sure the sign was about Sean because his name is the biggest, but the Peterson's love their sports, so all of the family's (or Cal's) favorite teams were represented. (The grandkids made most of the sign, but I know I see Joni's handwriting on there too.)
Bailee has been counting down almost as long as Bonnie, so it was only fitting that she hold the sign.
Everyone (except Joni) was surprised to see Bart walk out with Sean. Bart re-arranged his flight to get in before Sean and waited at his gate for over an hour to be the first to see him. It was great to see Sean again and to watch him get to know the kids again.

Out of Town = Out of Touch

We recently returned from visiting family in Utah and I may get around to downloading those pictures soon, but this post is well over due. My friend Hilary is on a new show on Oxygen and you've got to see it! 3 episodes have aired already, but they are re-running it like crazy, so you should be able to catch up. "Dance Your Ass Off" airs on Monday night. (Yep, you just read profanity on my blog, let's be honest, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later.) Get caught up quick because I went to the taping that airs on Monday, so keep any eye out for the girl in the audience wearing an outfit borrowed from another reality TV star. Here's the clip from a few weeks ago. Hil is seriously amazing!

School's (almost) Out for Summer

Here in SoCal, school goes a little longer than other places and we're closing in on our last week of school. I'm actually looking forward to it. We've got a few little trips planned and there's always adventure to be had with these 3 monkeys! At the last assembly of the year Cal was given the Principal's Award for "Academic Achievement and Citizenship." Of course, Kirt and I are super proud of him, but I think you can tell from the picture that Owen and Tessa think that Cal is pretty special too!

Another week in the life...

Grandma Leslie and Uncle Logan came to visit and do a little celebrating for Logan's high school graduation. And let me tell you, my Mom deserves to celebrate. Logan really made her sweat for a while there! They flew in just in time for me to go to my first Hollywood fashion show while they watched the kidlets. (Pete Wentz is one tiny little dude.) We did lots of hanging out, eating and a little shopping just for fun while they were here. Thanks again mom and Log!
This pic is at The Grove. Quite a successful trip that included lunch, lots of treats from the Farmer's Market and finally - quilts for the boys beds. Not bad after 2 years in our house - right? We're getting there.
We've spent a lot of time at Cal's school lately helping them build their CO2 rockets and today was the launch. It was a blast and something that the kids will definitely remember. The whole school came out to count down the launches for the 3 classes that participated.
I loved this picture of all the kids looking into the sky. Cal had just pulled the cord that released his rocket into the air. They were supposed to run and try to catch their rocket before it hit the ground - that was unfortunate for the group of 2nd graders that were sitting where Cal's rocket was headed. Cal almost dove on top of the poor little souls.

No picture, but yesterday was Cal's last baseball game of the season. Before we sent my mom and Logan to the airport, Cal was telling them what he would do if he were caught in "a pickle." I just laughed and said that we'd see if he was that brave if he were ever in that situation. Fast-forward 2 hours and there Cal was - caught in a pickle between 3rd and home. He was hilarious - I wish I was a good enough writer to explain his dancing, hand shaking movements as the catcher threatened to throw the ball to 3rd. Cal had a look in his eye that said,"C'mon, just throw it already!" The whole crowd was on their feet, the catcher finally took the bait and threw the ball and Cal took off for home. He slid into home (he wouldn't have it any other way) and everyone went nuts. That was the final run for his team this year and an exciting end even though they lost the game. I think it was the highlight of the season for Cal (and maybe me too.)