How many Petersen's does it take.....

To clean the driveway? Two to do the work and one to supervise. Notice in all the pictures Ron is watching Tony and Riley do all the work :) Thanks to Tony, we finally have our driveway back, see ya later ice, please don't come back anytime soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Riley making Superbowl Pretzels!

Anthony making Valentine's Day fondue!

In the Petersen household we don't do a lot of celebrating for Valentine's day. The kids get a book and we spend time together making cheese and chocolate fondue. Tony started karate about a month ago and we go Monday and Wednesday nights. It is hard for us to get dinner ate, homework done, and everyone out the door on time so we celebrated on Sunday. This gave us more time to enjoy everything. I fixed all the food and Tony fixed the cheese fondue all by himself! Talk about one proud Momma :) It was so yummy! Can't wait for next year so we can do it again!

We have several food traditions which also include making homemade pretzels on Sunday Bowl Sunday. I have two great helpers that are always willing to get their hands dirty and help me cook. I love it! Riley has learned how to use the microwave. Anytime it is on she comes running in and says, whatcha cooking? It cracks me up every time! Cooking helps Tony practice his fractions, and Riley with her numbers. Anything can be made into a learning tool, plus it is just fun to build great memories! Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Riley the super singer :)

Anthony's 11th Birthday

Can you believe Anthony is 11!?! I would say Anthony had the best birthday ever. It started off with the Melting Pot for dinner on his actual birthday with the both set of Grandparents. It was some place that Anthony had been to before and LOVED and we had always wanted to go. I don't know that I will go back again, it was good yet expensive but I think my fondue that we make on Valentine's Day was better. Anyways Tony got some really cool things like new games for his PSP, Colt's sheets, 11 $10.00 bills, and who could forget tickets to see the Colts that weekend in the playoff!!! Oh and it was in a suite! I was going to ground him so he couldn't go and I could go ;)

The Friday after his birthday he had a few friends over and we all went ice skating. It was so crazy trying to get the boys calm, feed, and out the door that I left without my camera. I was so mad when I realize it. Most of the boys did pretty well ice skating but it was fun to watch them all knock each other down when one fell down they all fell down. After freezing to death we came home and they had a sleep over. Let me tell you 4 boys sleeping in Tony's room was quite interesting! I have no clue what time they fell asleep but I know it was after 3:00 am.

They all left around 11:00 the next morning and Tony was on his way to his Papa's house to get ready for the game. Even though the Colts lost :( Tony had a blast! Overall I have to say a pretty darn good birthday :) I hope he doesn't expect birthday like this every year!

Christmas Day!

Chase enjoying his Christmas presents!

Christmas day wasn't it's usual chaotic day. We celebrated Christmas the weekend before with Ron's parents so it was just us and then to my Mom and Dad's for a little bit. Tony always adds an extra element of excitement so maybe that was it :) I of course couldn't sleep, yes I am still like a little kid only I am not excited about my gifts but, excited to see the joy on my kids faces! Once Riley got up it was so fun to see her awe. She was so excited but also a little overwhelmed!
We took our time opening presents so she could enjoy each one. Again we cut way back this year so we could take our time instead of feeling like we needed to rush through it all to get everything open before the end of the day ;) We went to my parents house late morning and opened more presents and ate so yummy food and just hung out. It was a great day and I am so blessed with a great family. Riley still asks about Santa, we made cookies the other day and she said they were for Santa. I think she just wants more presents :)

Christmas Eve

Riley's big present that Santa got at goodwill and cleaned up for super cheap!!

We have a lot of Christmas traditions that we have built over the 5 years of living together and it is so fun to see Riley getting to share in these traditions. Tony is just about out of the Santa phase, I am pretty sure he doesn't believe but he won't tell us that. I think he thinks he won't get presents! Riley LOVES Christmas time, she sings the songs, she thinks Santa is the coolest thing ever and well she loves the presents :) Since Tony wasn't with us this year :( we decided to go out to eat Christmas Eve. The only place open was Applebee's, which was fine with us. As we were getting ready to order our food, Santa came up to Riley and gave her a candy cane. She was in AWE. I so wish I had my camera. Her eyes got huge and she kept saying, it's Santa over and over in her quiet voice. By far a awesome memory, who would of thought! We also go and see Christmas lights Christmas eve, a lot of time that is just to get out of the house and make time go by a little faster! Once we got home we had to make our Christmas breakfast and of course put Santa's cookies and the reindeer food. After that is was time to go to bed and get ready to celebrate Jesus birthday!

Christmas #1

Anthony had to go to Minnesota for Christmas this year so we had to be a little creative and do his Christmas early. Thank goodness Santa was willing to come a few days early! He of course had to bring a few presents for Riley, we knew she wouldn't understand why bubba got all the presents. We usually go way overboard for Christmas but this year we were more focused on the real reason for Christmas and trying to teach our kids about Jesus and what he has given us! Tony overall had a great Christmas, between both grandparents and us the kid got more than he could ever want!

Circus!

Back in December we all went to the Ringling Bros Circus, thanks Mom and Dad! This was Riley's first circus and I knew she would like it but I was a little worried she wouldn't make it through the entire thing. Boy I was wrong, I don't recall her moving it at all and she still talks about going to the circus :) Every once in a while she will yell, LET'S GO TO THE CIRCUS, which makes me smile. Anthony loves the circus too, my parents took him several years ago and they couldn't believe how much he enjoyed it. He still does and it is so fun to see them both sharing in these great experiences and building such great memories!

Christmas pictures!

And the winner is this one!

Here are some out takes for our Christmas cards! It is so hard to do these right, trying to get both kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time seemed challenging but it was fun and they turned out pretty good, I think :)

KRA Banquet

Last year was an ok year for Ron racing, he finished 3rd in points which was pretty good considering he was up against newer equipment and more money. We had a good time at the KRA banquet, lots of laughs. For some reason my camera was acting up so we don't have many pictures from that day. Anthony did pretty good in points as well being that he misses so many races during the season to go to Minnesota. I am crossing my fingers that this years schedule will have him here for most of the races but we will see!

Anthony's School Program

Ok, so I am going to try and play some catch up today!

Back in November, Anthony had his last school music program at Delaware Trail. It was a great performance but so bitter sweet knowing that he is growing up on us and moving on to middle school next year. Anthony is also apart of the Delaware Trail Choir so I am hoping he will have at least one more school program before the end of the school year!