Sometimes you just need to stop and smell the roses..

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! We certainly did, we spent the day at my parents house with some yummy food, good football, good naps, and lots of looking through sale ads. I asked Tony what he was thankful for on our way to my parent house and this was his answer: Mom, Dad, Riley, both Grandparents, books, candy, pie, go-karts, well.....pretty much everything. Ron and I are both thankful for two very happy and very WONDERFUL kids, a loving relationship, GREAT parents, and last but not least God. We had a great day, we missed Ron's parents and I do miss all my family in Missouri but know how lucky I am to have such a great family here in Indiana!

Mom and I got up early Friday and headed out to the Black Friday madness, this was Mom's first time going with me. It was crazier than usual but I had a blast, I secretly think Mom did too even though she says she isn't doing it ever again :) It is by far one of my favorite days of the year, I save and save for this day and literally go shopping ALL day. The van decided it had enough around noon and started making some crazy noises so I had to quite a little earlier than normal. It was probably a good thing because we had the van loaded full and I was just about broke! I pretty much finished up all my shopping but Ron and can sit back now and enjoy the holidays. We have lots planned the next few weekends!

Principal.....

In my opinion it is never good when the Principal wants to see you. Well that is just want happened to me today when I dropped Tony off at school. I had a flashback from my school years, no I don't think I ever made a trip to the principals office when I was younger. I don't know what was louder my heart beating super fast or my heavy breathing trying to keep myself calm. Wonder what Tony had done now, I was already fully aware the day before wasn't his best days but nothing to have to see the principal about.....

I am going to back up to Monday before I finish.

Tony was a big winner of a fishing trip with Mr. Utterback, the school principal. How did he win this trip you might ask? They are doing a fundraising program at school for a girl with autism to get a service dog. They did a rent-a-teacher auction and Tony donated all of his money and I matched it. Well, he WON his first choice which was to go fishing with the Principal. Him and about 8 other kids went fishing right after school on Monday at the Eagle Elementary wildlife pond. He caught two fish but had more fun helping all the other kids put worms on their hooks and take the fish off. He was the expert fisherman and he put his skills to use helping everyone else. Can you tell I am glowing with pride now!?!

Back to this morning...

The principal wanted to tell me how impressed he was with Tony donating his own money for Amanda's service dog. He couldn't believe it and thought it was wonderful!! He told me how big of a help he was and very impressed with how Tony is coming along and how good of a kid he is. We had several visits with the Principal back in first grade, so he knows Tony quite well. No I really didn't think Tony had done anything wrong, I kind of thought it was about Monday's fishing trip. You can't help but be nervous when the Principal hunts you down at 7:15 in the morning. Talk about starting your day off right! I immediately call Ron to tell him. As he put it, we sometimes questions ourselves as parents if we know what the heck we are doing. We must be doing something right because we have pretty great kid!!!

Perfect Weekend!

traditional Ian and Anthony fort!

Yes Ian is missing his shirt, he sat in our lawn chair that had been in the backyard during all the rain, poor kid what to wear Tony's clothes for the rest of the night, notice the height difference? It was funny!

Trying to do something to keep her hair out of her face.

She didn't like it...

Friday night Ron stopped by and rented Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. For those that had a Nintendo as a child and played the original game back in the day, this is just like it!!! I am in heaven, it brings back so many memories :) We played the game forever Friday night, my thumb was sore went we went to bed if that tells you anything. We both had stressful weeks at work so this was our way of unwinding from the week, it was perfect!

Saturday we got up and I went to New Moon, which is awesome and much better than Twilight. Ron took the kids TV shopping, yes I know what was I thinking sending him to a store to get a TV while I wasn't there! It worked out though and we have a new bigger TV for the toy room, this will come in handy after Christmas ;) Ian spent the night Saturday and at one point in time we had 5 boys in our house, all the neighbor kids showed up. It was nice that the boys were able to play on their own and we didn't have to entertain them. We did a bonfire after Riley went to bed and had some smores and watched some Butler basketball.

Sunday was beautiful so we took advantage of the weather and put up our outside Christmas lights, pictures to come soon. We watched to Colts win yet another game and then just hung out together as a family.

Perfect weekend!

Vampires and Werewolves!!

Yes I will admit I jumped on the bandwagon last January and read all four Twilight books in just a matter of weeks. Impressive with a 5 month old right!?! Needless to say sleep didn't exists back then and Ron was kind enough to let me read most weekends ALL day long. I think that was because he finally got the television :) I remember a couple of days not even getting out of my pajamas, those are always great days! So anyways I have a date tomorrow morning with a friend to see the second Twilight movie, New Moon, and can not wait!!!! So in honor of my first friend date in a REALLY long time I thought it deserved it's own post :)

Also another reason for this post is, does anyone have any good book recommendations? I am in a rut on reading and I would love to find another good series that I get sucked into like Twilight and Harry Potter. Let me know because I can add it to my Christmas list, which is "weak" as Ron says :)

Belly Button

She learns something new all the time, she has done this for awhile now but it cracks me up everytime!

While the boys are away....

The girls will play!! Riley and I had a good weekend, we kept ourselves busy so we didn't miss Daddy and Bubba too much. We spent most of our time with Grandma and Papa. We went to a Butler basketball game and I got some Christmas shopping done, and finished reading a book (that is rare these days)! We hit up the Christmas holiday and hobby and gift show at the fairgrounds. Like I said we did a lot of shopping. I was able to finish over 75% of my Christmas shopping, what a relief! I know what else I need to buy it is just waiting for that tree in our backyard to grow some more money. If anyone has any tips on how to make it grow faster please let me know!

Boys Trip to Florida!!

Some crazy fish Tony caught

I guess he started his own business while he was down there!

Ron caught a sting ray!

The boys headed down to Florida Friday morning. Steve bought the boys tickets and pretty much everything else as Ron's 30th birthday present. I dropped them off at the airport at 6:00 am and off they went. This was the first trip they had taken just the boys in a really long time. It was good for all of them. They fished the whole weekend. I talked to Tony Friday night and he was telling me all about the four fish he caught. It then came out that three of them were rocks and he only caught one fish. He sure knows how to tell fishing stories already! They got to spend some time at the beach and in the pool as well as fishing. It sounds like it was very relaxing weekend for all of them. Ron came home looking like a lobster, I have never seem him so red! Tony got some sun as well, his cheeks were red and it is RARE for Tony to get red. I was glad I picked them up last night, I missed them both tremendously!

Car fun!

Enjoy some fun from our weekend!

Somebody is turning 30 today!

Updated:

Just so everyone knows Ron is already lying about his age! This was such a last minute thing I had to run out and get a cake after work yesterday and didn't even think about candles. So we used what we had, a 29! For some reason I find this hilarious and unfortunately I didn't have the camera. Ron said it made him feel a little better, made it not seem so real that he was 30. Boys, what can you do with them :)

Happy Birthday to Ron!!! We are now both officially 30, I don't feel so old now :) He is taking the 30 thing a lot harder than I did, imagine that. But, we have some plans tonight that might just help with that. Nothing like Penn Station, some cake, and great presents to make your birthday not so bad! Yes I know, wow big spenders! Ron and Tony are leaving on Friday morning for a boys fishing trip to Florida with Steve as his present from his parents. So we are not going all out so he is able to do that there. Happy birthday Ron don't worry your not that old ;) I can't wait to spend the next 30 years and more with you!

Weekend update...

What a beautiful weekend!! We spent Saturday morning out goofing off and then came home and worked out in the yard for the rest of the day. It was gorgeous out. Ron and I watched two movies that night, it was wonderful. We use to stay up until 2-3 in the morning watching 3-4 movies a night. We don't get to do that anymore with a crazy 14-month old who STILL doesn't sleep through the night every night. Staying up until 11 was late for us :), just call us old! We got up Sunday and went to breakfast, a rare treat for us, did a few chores, watched a tense Colts football game, and played outside. We couldn't of asked for a better weekend, just a longer one!! I love weekends with nothing to do.

Happy Halloween!!

Red Pumpkin Grant!

Our Little Stinker!

Cruising while getting treats :)

Trick or Treat!

Ninja boy in action!

We had a wonderful Halloween and hope you all did too! We spent the afternoon at lunch with my Mom, Happy Birthday Mom!! Then came home and took a nap. Got up and got everyone ready, Grandma Terri and Papa Steve came over with the Jarboe's. We had a great time trick or treating, it was strange to be out and it still be daylight. We got a ton of candy and Riley knows where it is, every time she sees the container so goes crazy :)

I should of known though that the nap was a sign of things to come. I made to the store on Sunday and spent the rest of the day in bed or on the couch. A head cold has swept through the Petersen' household. I thought last week Riley was teething but I am guessing she had it first. Thank goodness we are all on the mend!!