Happy Easter!

Here's some pics of us in our Easter BEST! My mom made all the girls their dresses (Thanks! They are SO cute!) I made their hats.






We took some pictures before church and then after we got home I went out with the girls to try and get a few more of just them. The bishop stopped by and we chatted for a second (about how excited I am to go get some plants for the backyard and garden--he just opened a nursery.) When he left (we were talking for less than 5 min.) I rounded the girls up to take them inside..the pictures were not working out (Esther was crying and Hannah/Wynnie were complaining!) As I turned to get Sophie I noticed she had something in her mouth (It still makes me sick thinking about it!) Anyway, she was sucking on a syringe...have I mentioned I LOVE this neighborhood...I guess I shouldn't say that you can probably find them just about anywhere..I should say I LOVE "people" (if you want to mess up your own life go for it BUT leave my 2 1/2 year old out of it! Throw your TRASH away...and just for the record my front yard NOT a trash can!!!) The needle had the cap on and didn't appear to be used (THANK GOODNESS!) but it still has me scared...I've been in tears a good portion of the night with all the what if's! We called the hospital and they told us we could bring Sophie in for testing if we were that concerned about it (shouldn't we be? my child was using someones drug needle as a sucker!) they also told us we could call the police and have them come out and look at the needle and see what they thought (We had already talked to our friend Paul who is CSI and he said he didn't think it looked used but he's paranoid and would probably have her checked anyway.) In the end we decided to go with prayer and a blessing. I'm going to call and check with Sophie's pediatrician in the morning and see what they say. I feel better about the Sophie situation BUT I'm still pretty annoyed with "people"! It did give us a good opportunity to sit down with the kids and talk to them about drug use and how we NEVER touch needles...and tomorrow Jeremy will finish our fence!

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

The girls had a fun time finding their Easter baskets and all the eggs the Easter bunny left.

The girls each got a new outfit and water bottle...and a little candy...although it was hard for the Easter bunny to leave them candy...I hear she's on a diet!

Easter Egg FUN!

Today we went to my mom's to color Easter eggs! The kids had a fun time (as always) coloring eggs (and making a mess!) It was fun to hang out with the family.

Sophie brought me this egg and then said oops and dropped it (totally on purpose) so she could eat it!

After coloring the eggs we had a Easter egg hunt in the backyard:

And of course my mom bought YUMMY, delicious, sugary, goodness...which I couldn't eat :(

Work in the yard

Today while we listened to conference we decided to work in the back yard...we are desperate to have it done...a sanctuary for us to go to to get away from our crazy neighborhood! We have part of the fence done (it's looking great!) and Jeremy made our planters for our square foot garden. So today we went out to arrange everything...it was real easy to imagine how it will be when it is done...now if we can just get it to that point! The girls came out to help...they like digging holes in the backyard! We were only out for about 10 min. and then, like every conference weekend, it started to snow! It was only REALLY lightly snowing but the girls said they were cold and needed to go in for hot chocolate. So we left Jeremy out to work and headed inside!

Here's some pics of Jeremy and the massive roots he has been chopping out of the fence line!

Getting ready for Easter!

Today while we were out visiting Grandma and Grandpa the kids helped them decorate their tree with Easter eggs! Easter is going to be here before we know it (I sure wish the weather would get that memo and warm up a bit for us...I'm tired of the cold!) At least it was warm enough for us to be outside...and who doesn't have fun when Grandpa gets his ladder out?

I'm Lovin' it!!!

My mom didn't have to work today and the Thompson boys are off track so she made plans with Hannah to bring Brew, Evrett, and Wynnie to eat lunch with Hannah at her school. Well, we woke up this morning to snow (I guess winter isn't quite finished) and my mom HATES to drive in snow she also had slept on it and (I believe) had her wits more about her and realized that she didn't want to wrestle all the kids in Hannah's cafeteria! She asked if we could take Hannah out of school and she would take all the kids to McDonalds for a lunch/play date (a venue much more suited for kids running around being crazy!) So we had a fun afternoon with Grandma, Grandpa, and the Thompsons!

Spring DIRTY-ing!

We started the day Spring CLEAN-ing. My house is in desperate need of a good scrub! I have been busy and had a case of the winter BLAH's and have basically just let it go...so today was the day I was to catch up on my cleaning (we were almost suffocating in the dirty laundry that has piled up all around the house!) About mid-day I got a call from Mechelle wanting help cleaning off her back porch. Apparently the spring cleaning bug has bitten her as well (actually she suffers from a bad case of spring clean fever...I think it may be terminal...she is ALWAYS cleaning...and no one gets things cleaner than Mech!) She offered us lunch--grilled hot dogs...how could we say no? So we headed down to her house for some hot dogs and some clean-up fun!

The kids had a fun time with their bike helmets...they had been lost out on the back porch and we found them during our clean up. They put them on and wore them as they played in the backyard!

The kids were having fun in the dirt! They would shovel it into their pails and then carry it to the top of the play set and dump them out! Esther became a victim of this senseless dirt dumping as she fell asleep in the swing and the wind carried the dirt to cover her! I went over to take a cute picture of her sleeping in the swing and she was covered in dirt! I asked Wynnie and Bruce if they had put dirt on Esther and they told me No that they were just dumping it off the top of the play set...with grandpa's help Wynnie determined it wasn't their fault it was the winds fault!

Sophie did a good job of getting herself dirty! I was visiting with my mom and when I looked over Sophie was on her belly rolling around in the dirt! Where is this girls mom?!?!?

As we put the girls in the bath and the water turned to mud it was apparent that although this day started out all about CLEAN it definitely ended up DIRTY!!!!

Let's make some MUSIC!!!

A couple of ladies in our ward started a music group for our kids (Music Makers.) It is SO fun...the kids have a blast going each week. They learn new songs, dance around, play instruments, and learn finger plays. I'm so glad they started this group! It's a chance for us to get out of the house and have some fun with our friends! The kids look forward to it each week and come home and sing the songs non-stop!





I had to take a video and show how cute the kids are when they dance around...enjoy!


Thanks Suzie and Marnae!

SUN....

Oh, how we have missed you!!!! It was so nice to be able to play outside today and enjoy the sun! It is nice to have spring finally here! The kids enjoyed playing on the swing set at Mechelle's.

The girls were all having fun going down the slide--making trains.

They kept calling for Bruce to come join them but he was busy throwing the toy car around on the rocks! He told them that he was busy fixing the car--such a boy! Pretty soon the girls left the swing set to help Bruce "fix" the car--anything you can do I can do better!

Bobbie and my dad were out working on the boat (both of them VERY excited that it is finally almost boating season again!) So of course the kids had to climb up and take a look at the boat!

When they got back down Sophie grabbed a paper towel roll from the ground and started "spying" everyone..."I see grandpa...I see Wynnie...I see Mommy..."

Something Green!!!

After all the cookie making we headed out back to play on the swing set and enjoy the nice weather!

While we were out back we found this lizard! Actually it is Mechelle's tenant Shane's lizard. He brought it out to show the kids. They all loved it...Preston was giving it kisses and Hannah even let it climb on her back--amazing considering a few weeks ago she was scared to death of a few butterflies!

St Patty's Day Cookies!

Yesterday we went to Ellie's to make St Patty's cookies! Mechelle and I had been looking at Bakerella's site and found these cute chocolate mint cookies that looked delicious so we thought we would give them a try! What we found out was A) they WERE delicious and B) We are NOT Bakerella! Hers looked so cute and professional and (as you will see in the pics ours didn't!) Anyway, we had a fun time with the kids and got some good treats to eat--even if they didn't look good!

Lucky Me!

I love these guys!

Happy St. Patty's Day from our little leprechauns!

Ahoy, Matey!

I do this coupon thing (I'm not totally committed to it yet so don't ask!) Anyway, it means I get 5 Sunday newspapers which means we have a ton of newspaper hanging around the house! My girls are into this "recycling" phase...not the "lets throw our empty cans and newspaper in the recycle bin" recycling but the "we need to make something new out of this garbage" recycling...it's kinda driving me nuts! Wynnie has been making "things" out of the newspaper (mostly just cutting it up into a mess!) Today she wanted us all to make pirate hats...who knew you could have so much fun with trash!

It's in their blood!

My girls LOVE to draw! Love may not even be a strong enough word! They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (to infinity plus one!) to draw! They MUST draw! For a long time now no paper has been safe in our house...the girls quickly snatch it up and fill it with their lovely drawings! Jeremy's work papers, newspapers, envelopes from the mail we just brought it...it doesn't matter what it is if it is paper they will (and do) draw on it. They even snatch paper from each other. If Hannah is drawing a picture and she leaves (even for a minute to say go to the bathroom) when she comes back Wynnie will be drawing on the back of the paper Hannah had before she left...it's crazy...it's an obsession...I don't think there is a cure...so we just keep supplying them with paper! It's an endless trail from the dinning room table (where they draw) up to the office to snatch paper from the printer! When I was down at IKEA I found this:


I LOVE this for sooooo many reasons! It keeps the girls busy drawing up in the toy room so my dinning room table is no longer the Peterson girls art studio...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that! The first day I put it up Wynnie disappeared for hours (I'm sure Hannah would spend an equal amount of time up there drawing; however, she spends most of her day at school--probably drawing!) Now instead of fighting over paper (or stealing each others paper) they work together on drawings...the paper is big enough that they can both sit at the desk and work together! The paper IS big but we just take a picture of their picture and can keep it forever on the computer without having to store tons of pieces of paper! The rolls of paper are huge (about 120 ft--I think) and are pretty inexpensive (about $5)...I think this will be a nice solution for the drawing addiction at our house!

Here's a sample or their art:

Noodles, or is it snakes, for dinner!

Tonight we had noodles for dinner and I just had to post some of the cute things that were said at the table:

Wynnie (holding a noodle up in one hand and then running her finger and thumb from the other hand down the noodle): "First you skin it...then you eat it!"

Wynnie also liked making a long mustache out of her noodles by hanging the ends out of her mouth!

Sophie (holding up a LONG noodle): "GIANT food!"

Sophie also kept calling the noodles snakes...apparently my girls like eating snakes!

Surprise!

Jeremy and I went away to Midway this weekend to celebrate our anniversary (I can't believe we have been married for 9 years!) While we were there we went to some antique stores and found a shark tooth for Hannah and some fossils for Wynnie and Sophie. We also were bringing back the girls Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Peterson (an AWESOME doll house!) When we talked to the girls on the phone Saturday night we told them we had a surprise for them when we got home (they were missing us!) {Side note: Mechelle told us that when they were going to sleep Sat. night the girls got scared and she overheard Hannah telling Wynnie that she could say a prayer and that would make her feel better so Hannah and Wynnie said a prayer together and were able to go to sleep...I love my girls SO much!}

After our phone conversation "the surprise" was all the girls could talk about. When I talked to Mechelle she told me they were trying to figure out what it was! Hannah's guess was that we were bringing Grandma and Grandpa Peterson home and Wynnie's guess was that we were bringing Barack Obama home (where did that come from?)

When we got back we hung out at Mech and Aaron's for a while and the girls kept asking for their surprise! When we finally got home we gave them the surprises and while it wasn't Barack Obama or their Grandparents it didn't disappoint! They loved their gifts!

Nancy painted all the rooms in the doll house...SO CUTE!

Here's the girls reaction when the first saw the doll house: