Happy 2010!

Since we didn't get a Christmas card sent out in time...here are our New Year's greetings to everyone. From our family to yours!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy Birthday to our Boys!

This is my third blog for today...trying to set a record here.

Back on October 15th, Zack turned 12 years old...then on October 19th, Brock turned 8! There is no "set" way we do their parties...some years it is a joint party, other years we do them separately. They don't mind either way and this year since they both were in the midst of their football season, we decided to all go to the park and play football! After some crazy cold, rainy weather we had been having, it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. Brock and Zack both invited some friends from school and others from their football teams.

Suiting up for some flag football.


Since Truman's two older brothers were at the party, we invited him too so he could keep Carlie company.

He is such a little gentleman...I just love this picture.

Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked...this is a blog about Brock and Zack! :-)

Gift time...IU hats, transformers, nerf guns, IU shirts, gift cards, etc....fun stuff!

A beautiful Fall day for a walk in the woods.

It's great to have friends from school AND sports teams...we love our just-the-right-size town!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Brock! You bring so much energy to our family...we love you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZACK! We love your humor and your kind heart!

Thanks to Paul and Hallie for sharing picture-taking duty....and Hallie just HAD to make fun of the hot dogs! Let's just say there wasn't a single one left, no matter how burnt it was!!

November 17th - Carlie turns 5!!

I don't know if anyone else is sighing a big *sigh* of relief that today is the last day of school for 2009...but I AM!! It's time for a break! They are even teasing us with a weather report of snow for tonight but we'll see. So...with our Christmas party over with, the teacher luncheon completed, all baking "gifts" done for teachers, spritz cookies sent in for both boys' parties today, and pumpkin crunch sent in with Paul to his office...I'm feeling very relaxed for a little while! Time to blog about three of our Fall birthdays. However, that's only two blogs because the boys had a joint party this year.

Carlie turned five on November 17th. Hard to believe our baby is going off to school next year! Time just keeps marching on. Carlie is very much into Build-A-Bear right now so we decided to "pay" for a party (with birthday money from grandparents [Thank You!] it's even more affordable!) for the first time ever! Let me just say it was WELL WORTH the money and very reasonable...especially for the hour's worth of undivided attention from one of the store employees.
The "all important" hearts.

The employee did all kinds of activities with the children. They really had a great time.

Hallie is such a huge help! She could have easily been in charge of the party herself!

Time to stuff! It was a lot of fun to introduce three friends to the Build-A-Bear experience. The other three had done them before.

If Matt is around there WILL be laughter. He helped Zack work through the emotions of not getting his own build-a-bear! HA!

Time for a bath....Carlie picked out the black and white dog as her animal this time. She named it Ollie since it looks a lot like our Ollie.

Making out the birth certificate.

Finished products...a cat named Bella, 3 puppies and 2 bears!

Since Carlie's birthday comes so soon after Halloween...and she loves candy....therein lies my inspiration!! Starburst, Smarties, lollipops, Nerds, bubble gum tape....easy as pie (cake).
We went to the food court in the mall to eat our cake...another highly recommended idea!!

Brock trying to turn it into more of a boy's party!!

A baby doll from Grandpa and Grandma Pedersen. [Thank you!]

"Loaded" dollhouse from Daddy and Mommy...major garage sale find from August!

Carlie is a daddy's girl and we love her so very much. She brings a lot of laughter and drama to our home! Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!

Trying to be as creative as Bakerella!

Let's just say I will never be as creative as Bakerella nor do I have as much patience as she MUST have!! However, I have really been wanting to try out her most basic recipe for red velvet cake balls and I finally did right before Thanksgiving. Bakerella has amazing pictures on her blog but I attempted to do a few of my own....here goes...

First you crumble up the baked cake and mix in the icing. Someday I'd like to try another flavor/icing combination but this one is very rich. I also should have used a little less icing than the whole can...I wouldn't have minded them being a tiny bit drier.

Next you shape them into little balls and put them in the freezer for a little while.

Then you dip them into melted dipping chocolate...I just used our store brand and it was easy to melt and delicious. I tried different dipping techniques but just using a spoon like bakerella says seems to be the easiest unless you are making her cake pops and using a stick. I just had to try a bite to see what all the fuss was about...YUM!

Here are some of the finished products. I drizzled leftover chocolate on some of them and it made for quite a pretty plateful. I would NOT recommend doing a double batch, like I did, your very first time...you'll be at it for quite awhile.

Some prefer white chocolate.

The double recipe made about 125 cake balls...I shared all but a few with the teachers at our elementary school and supposedly they were quite the hit.


I dare you to try out some of the other cake pop recipes that bakerella has so creatively made. She also has some other delicious looking recipes. Her Cupcake Pops are adorable!

Christmas Screensavers

If you haven't had a chance to check out these great Christmas screensavers, you should! They are so pretty to have on the computer screen and the best part of them is it actually snows...and the snow accumulates over time!! You can do some of them with or without music and/or the rabbits that move and birds that fly. There is also a fireplace that crackles if you choose that one. They are really neat, I promise. It looks like there are ones for other times of the year too.

When you are downloading the software, you will be asked if you want other software downloads...you can decline them all and I have had absolutely no problems with it. You may want to change your screensaver settings so that it will come on sooner and you can enjoy it all the time!

Here are a couple pictures but believe me, they are even prettier when the snow is falling and the lights are twinkling.

Time to Decorate for Christmas!

We made our annual trip to the Twin H Tree Farm earlier this week. We love how they do everything for you...cut it down, shake it, cut off any low branches you want, bale it, and tie it to the top of the car! The free popcorn, apple cider, and hot chocolate helps too!

Here's Brock ready to start hunting for the perfect tree...


Zack got a lot of exercise running beside the car!


Here's my cute husband (A.K.A. Clark Griswold)


Back home opening up their new ornaments for the year.


Ollie got to be involved in the whole process too!


(Obviously out of order)...the perfect tree has been found.


Before we work our magic.


The finished product! Hopefully it will stay nice and healthy for a whole month.


Here are a few more decorations. Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Football Memories from Fall 2009

Zack's football team photo was in our newspaper today. He had such a great time playing on this team and they did really well overall. I think we were third in the league. Zack is #7 (John Elway's number in case ANY of you forgot!! How could you?!?!?)



"The Matt James Auto Mobile Services Raiders enjoyed a successful season in the NFL of the Monroe County Youth Football Association. Team members were, from left to right, front row: Sam Foust, Will Stowell, Jacob Oeding, Jordy Jackson, Taran Tavares, Hunter James and Jacob Magness; second row: Ross Gleason, Josh Hall, Matt Rogers, Hayden Rich, Luke Barrow, Zack Pedersen, Conrad Schlegel and Alec Tourner; third row: Sam Helm, Jacob Holbrook, Tyler Anders, Thaddeus Luong and J.L Lampkins; back row: Brad Jackson, Andy Barrow, Stan Moscrip, coaches Greg Tourner and Dave Schlegel. Courtesy photo"

Here are a couple more photos from Zack's season since I never blogged about it....

Zack going in for a touchdown.


Making his presence known!


The all important fan club.


Brock had a great season of flag football too! Here he is making his move.


But, more importantly, he always wants to make contact with us and know that we are watching!


I found this photo in the same folder of pictures and just had to add it.

Thanksgiving Day 2009

Happy Halloween

The blog vs. facebook dilemma is an interesting one. I suppose I have gotten used to the new facebook set-up although I can't really say that I'm a fan of it. I don't like having to do so much clicking around just to find everyone's pictures. It's definitely a quick and easy way to stay in touch and I know most people won't mess with a blog so facebook is nice in that way. However, since it's been almost six months since I updated my blog I thought I'd do a post just for something different.

It was fun to see how all our friends/family dressed up (through FB and blogs) for trick-or-treating...there were some serious costumes out there! I didn't think we were going to have to do costumes this year since we were going to be out of town but those plans changed and we were able to get our act together in time.

Carlie wanted anything with wings and as long as it looks fancy and is pink/purple/etc., she'll go for it. She didn't like it when the people at the doors said she was a princess or something else...she was a FAIRY, and that was that!

Brock was a Shadow Ninja and was pretty happy with the way his outfit turned out. Swords always help!

I think Zack could pretty much take or leave dressing up but if it involves sports then it's OK.

Hallie loves to dress up and it is never run-of-the-mill for her! She got a lot of comments on her outfit...I think it was very strange for people to see mostly little children at their door and then an obviously elderly lady! She had fun with it.



Who is the new face for the "Breakfast of Champions"??

Paul didn't wear the Wheaties box all night but he did enjoy wearing the mask quite a bit. The neighborhood parents were grabbing their children aside when he walked by!

The cute elderly couple!

I decided we had enough costumed people for one family so I opted out...or maybe you think this is my costume :-)
We won't be running out of candy any time soon and I have a feeling in a few days most of it will go off to school with Paul for his college students...good!!

Mom is here and we are in the kitchen!

No time to blog these days because I've got to keep up with Mom who is keeping me busy!! Pumpkin cookies (to be iced later), pumpkin bread, pinch-me bread, and a whole lot of containers of strawberry freezer jam!! Not to mention four lemon cheesecake pies and the "traditional" roast beef dinner for our family and a dear friend who has cancer and her family. It's been great fun and Mom has been such a big help. I only am able to get her up here about once a year so we're filling the freezer and doing other projects to take advantage of it. I shouldn't mention that she is having trouble with her sinuses and has some laryingitis...she won't sit still...I tried to make her! Thanks Mom for all your help!!