What a Week!

Monday: Gymnastics for the girls.
They both love it. MJ is far better at cartwheels than I ever was.

Tuesday: Duel of the schools Walkathon.
 This is their schools fundraiser for the year. Even though our school didn't raise the most money (not a surprise in our low SES area/title one school), however our teachers won the teachers race around the track. Yea! The girls had a fun time. Lil only made it 4 laps, and MJ did 5. I had to laugh at these first 3 pictures. Lil took off on the first lap and was far ahead of everyone else they were walking with.

Then you have this picture when Lil just stopped and you can see two teachers talking to her. 

Yea! MJ finally caught up with Lil. 

Now they are all trying to regroup for their second lap. Their first lap was quite eventful trying to keep everyone together. 

They were supposed to wear red/school shirts. However, I'm not going to argue with my 5 year old who wanted to wear purple. Whatever. It was actually kind of nice because she was easy to spot. Here are the girls with all their friends that they walked laps with. 

 As a parent, this is one of the best fundraisers I've seen. All money goes to the school and kids aren't trying to sell crap (sorry, that's what half of it is) to people who really don't want it. Plus, it helps them stay fit and encourages healthy living.

Wednesday: School pictures, and cleaned the house.
 As we were eating spaghetti for dinner I asked Lil how school pictures went. She goes, "First I smiled like this..."

 "Then I smiled like this..."

 "And then I smiled like this."

 I asked if they really took her picture three times and she said no, it was more than that. I have no idea how many times they took it, or if they took some pictures in the class too. No idea, but it was cute and I'm glad she did the faces again for the pictures.

Thursday: Doctor appointments for Buddy Boy and Ms M, and then the corn maze.
Buddy Boy's 18 month stats: weight 20.3 lbs = 1%
                                               height 28.5 in. = 0%
                                               head 17.5 in. = 1%
       conclusion: still small, still allergic to dairy and whey, beginning terrible twos, doesn't talk much yet: ma, da, ball, wow.
Ms M's 2 month stats: weight 11.3 lbs. = 59%
                                    height 21 in. = 5%

                                    head 15 in. = 25%

        conclusion: growing big too fast. Has a little fungal stuff under her armpits where it stays moist a lot. Her neck sometimes gets it too. We have just been putting baby powder on it to dry it out. That does work and the Dr. gave us some medicine to use too. She hates baths and being moved around. But besides that she is doing great.

The corn maze was fun. It's a good thing RB has a sense of direction because I DON'T. He would let the girls choose a direction and we would follow it. Then he would get us to the correct path till the next decision. This process got us through the maze in about 30 min. We continually got closer to the end and the girls still felt like they were leading the way. Lil was smart in her decisions as she waited until she heard voices and then went that way. MJ just picked one (as far as I know anyways). 

 It was a bumpy road for Ms M but she didn't scream. She even fell asleep.

 Corn balls. That is what they are picking up. We reminded MJ of the last time we came. She found a whole family of corn balls. She really wasn't interested in finding them but Lil went through a section of the maze consumed with finding them.

Towards the end of the maze I let Buddy Boy out of the stroller and let him walk. He loved it. 

 He is such a big helper too.

 After the maze Ms M was fascinated with looking out the window. Must have been seeing something pretty cool.

 Buddy Boy was so hungry. I think he got more of the cookie on his face though than in his mouth.

 What a busy day. We ended up getting fast food for dinner and didn't get home till late.

Friday: Grocery shopping, and RELAXING
Grocery shopping not so relaxing but the movie after dinner was. The girls had a neighbor friend over to watch a movie and once all the kids were in bed it was our turn. We watch The Avengers. I'm glad it was as good as everyone said it was. 

Saturday: MJ's friend came and played who moved away, baptisms, and the Aggies.
Today hasn't seemed as crazy. MJ's friend who came over is a sweetheart. She is very mellow and well behaved. The girls played so good together all day. Stake baptisms went well, like always. I love watching children get baptized. It is so fun to watch their smiling faces and feel of their sweet spirits. Once MJ's friend left, she and RB went to the Aggie game. I know they are having fun. RB's brother and kids went as well. So all afternoon I have been juggling kids, and watching another friend in the ward so her grandma could go to the RS broadcast. I recorded it and plan on watching it. The thought of taking three kids to the church was not a fun one.

 

 Things here are going well and I can't wait for the sabbath tomorrow. It will be a nice relaxing day not having to worry about laundry, which I need to go change again. Have a great day and Happy Birthday Chel. Love you!

We Are Pretty Sure...

Today Buddy's ear has grown about twice the size it should be. No the angle of the camera is not playing any tricks on you. His ear REALLY is that big compared to the other one. We are pretty sure it was a mosquito bite. He swells really bad with them and think this one just happened to be on the ear. Poor guy. He keeps grabbing it like it itches. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it is. 

He still had fun playing at grandma's though on the horsey. He had a reaction to some ice-cream and chocolate chips yesterday too. So all day, along with his ear, he has been wheezing. I feel so bad for him. Hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day for him!

Sibling Love

The month of September has come and is almost gone. It is hard to believe Halloween is just around the corner. Here are some pictures and videos from September that show the love we have here in the Pedersen house-hold. 

This first picture is of Ms M sleeping in the chair after church. Instead of laying her sideways she is laying how you would sit. Good thing the noise from her siblings doesn't wake her or she would never get any sleep. 

The other day I asked MJ to get shoes for her brother so we could go to the store. She came down with these. 

She thought she was so funny. The sad part is Buddy Boy loved them and wore them around the house for two days. 

I know at this age it is still gas, however when Ms M smiles it is sooo dang cute!!! Not the best picture of her smiling but good enough. 

Buddy Boy this morning came down stairs with the baby doll. He was full of lovings for the baby. Too cute! He is getting to be such a big helper with getting the pacifier, and diapers for his little sister.

Lil LOVES school. She is doing well and comes home every day with a story for us. This is her crown than she wore everywhere the day she made it. She came home one day with a gingerbread guy that represented her. She remembered what every shape, strip, and color represented about her.

Buddy has learned to water paint. Although it could be argued that he paints more on himself than the paper. He likes it though and a good bath afterwards makes him look like a boy again. 

Last night we were able to see the broadcast of the cultural celebration for the temple. The youth did such a good job. It was great to watch. Today we are watching some friends kids so they can go to the temple dedication and then we are going to the second one. Here are to two babies asleep on the floor and chair.

 And here are the other 7 kids outside playing. One is laying down on the slide.

Lastly, at the beginning of the month MJ finally got the juts to ride a bike without training wheels. I told her one day to go out and try on her sisters bike. She came in so happy and excited that she could do it. She has been riding everywhere now on it. This was taken this morning and she is cruising.

What a great month it has been. The weather is cooling down, we are getting into the routine and swing of things with school, gymnastics, and everything else. Hope your day is going great!

My Own World

I was making dinner tonight and MJ was talking to me.

Me: Sorry MJ I didn't hear you, I was in my own world.
MJ: That's okay. When I am in my own world, it's a pony world.

She is so dang cute and getting way to grown up!

A Miscalculation

For Ms M's blessing we needed hamburger buns to go with the meat for dinner. Thinking there were four hamburger buns in a package it was said we needed 10 packages of buns. If that were correct we would have had the perfect amount of buns. However, because there are 8 buns in a package we now have buns coming out of our ears. It is amazing how a simple miscalculation can lead to so much extra of something. To help with this, one package was taken to a neighbor, 4 packages were frozen, and one was left out to eat. We have been very creative with the use of our buns. We have had hamburgers, taco burgers, and spaghetti burgers this week. All were very good and now we used another package of buns. Wahoo!

Here is Ms M in her blessing dress. She is so beautiful.

 Not having to work this week has been so fun. Lil hasn't had kindergarten either since it was testing week. She went a friends house one day and had a blast. Here they are after microwaving ivory soap. Lil thought it was the coolest thing watching it grow. She came home with a bar of soap and immediately put it in the microwave for another experiment.

 Even though Lil hasn't had school we have been busy with homework. She made a book all about herself and decorated a silhouette to look like her. She did a great job working on them and I'm glad they are done with.

Ms M does pretty good with belly time. Buddy Boy was holding in her pacifier for her. 

It worked. Put her right to sleep. Good job Buddy Boy!

We do a lot of dancing at our house. What more do I need to say.

I'm saddened my week off has come to an end. Now it's just a normal weekend before the work week starts again. I'm glad I was able to be home though. It was worth every minute.

Labor Day Weekend w/ Ms M's Blessing

Labor Day Weekend was wonderful!

On Saturday we headed down south to a nephews baptism. It was a great day to see that, and be with family. We had a great lunch afterwards and then headed home. RB was so good to me. He drove both ways so I could write my lesson plans. Usually I have them done at school. However, with last week being the first week of school I was simply surviving and didn't get them done. It was nice to have travel time to write them. 

Sunday was a great day. A little crazy but still great. We had so many friends and family come to celebrate the birth/blessing of Ms M. We feel very blessed by the love and support from everyone who came and even those who were not able to be there. It was good to be able to see family two days in a row too. Families are what it is all about. Without them we would be lonely and lost. I love my family so much! My mom was so good to take pictures for me too so I didn't have to worry about it. She got some good ones. 

This is such a good picture. I love it.

Monday I took MJ, Lil, and a friend of theirs to the pool. We had such a good time swimming and going down the slide. We played tag, freeze tag, catch the mermaids, stay away from the unmoving crab (that was me towards the end, too tired to move), and of course went down the slide a hundred times. The only bad part was I got the kids all sun protected and forgot to have MJ put some on my back. So I got my one and only burn this year and it is painful. The last real day to be out swimming and I burn. Yep, it was worth it though. 

Even though the weekend is over for most people, mine is still going. I should have taken last week of for maternity but I wanted to be there to get my class set up. Since Lil doesn't have Kindergarten this week I took all of this week off instead. It has been great being home. Definitely something I will miss next week. I hope all your Labor Day weekends were fun as well!