You know your house is a mess when your husband comes home at 3 am after plowing snow all night long and thinks that someone broke into your home and ransacked the place. I'm embarrassed to admit that our house really was that messy. What can I say, it's Christmas break.

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Tuesday night Kurt and I went out to eat and then went to Kohls to do some shopping. After searching the whole store to find something to buy, I forced myself to try a shirt on. Don't you hate it when that happens, you have money, you want to spend it, but you can't find anything you like!!! So I went into the dressing room tried the shirt on and then spotted a little green plastic baggy filled with marijuana. I thought to myself is that really what I think it is, or did someone leave some oregano behind. I quickly found Kurt and told him that I thought I had found some weed in the dressing room, so he immediately went right into the room and we decided to take it up to the cashier and have him call the manager. Wow, I still can't believe I came across that stuff in a dressing room. Come on marijuana. Someone out there is ticked.

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This video is for Kurt, he is soooooooo proud of his little boy.

We love you Easton. At ten months he is crawling everywhere, practicing his balancing skills by pulling himself up everywhere on everything, grinning with his two new bottom teeth, and now playing catch with his favorite kind of toy...any kind of BALL. He's a keeper!!!

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Christmas

Christmas was wonderful!!! Every Christmas is great but this year we had my family stay with us at our home. We've always traveled for the holidays, so it was really nice to actually have Christmas at our home. We started the festivities with a Christmas Eve party. Most of my siblings were able to attend which was a lot of fun, since we don't get together as much as we should. White elephant gifts were exchanged at the end of the evening followed by wrapping up the last of the presents. Christmas morning was magical until Cassie decided that she did NOT want to open the last of her presents. It was pretty funny watching her throw all of her presents at anyone who would hand them to her. We got it on video and I'm planning on sending it in to America's Funniest Videos. I'll post if that gets us anywhere. The day after Christmas was just as fun. We started a new tradition to go sledding the day after Christmas. Our girls have always been scared to go sledding and we were able to convince them to try it out. Of course after the first time down the hill they were addicted and wanted more and more. I think Christmas was a success, it's always nice to be able to spend time with family.

You gotta love Jessa's hair.

It's about time

I LoVe mY LitTle CaSsie

So we have a problem with mice in our house. I know, it's disgusting!!! Anyway, so we have these mouse traps that we have in our laundry room 24/7 because that's where we have the most success in getting those gross little creatures. Well we use peanut butter on the traps to lure them in; however, the mice are too dang smart and always lick the PB off of the traps.

Well yesterday Cassie was talking to Kurt and out of no where she told him how the mouse licked the PB off of the trap. Then she said..."We gotta get that back!" She really likes peanut butter!!!

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sO yoU tHinK yOu Can dAnCe

Kurt and I went to the SYTYCD tour last week and had a blast. We love that show and we thorghouly enjoyed ourselves. At first Kurt was looking around for other "Dudes" and after he saw a few men with their significant others, he started to fell a little bit more relaxed. I have to say that Phillip was by far the most entertaining dancer at the show. I could watch his solo over and over again and never get bored. I'll also say that as much as we try to dance like him, well let's be honest that will never happen.


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PoOr LiTle eAsTOn


About two months ago, we noticed a soft lump on the back of Easton's neck. We weren't too concerned at first and decided to just watch it to see if it would go away or if it bothered him in anyway. Well nothing happened with it it just stayed there so we decided to take him to the doctor to get it checked out. Our Dr. really didn't know what it was and wanted to run some tests on him. So it began.


The first step was to have an ultrasound done. We went, we held him and we watched the screen and nothing showed up. So then we scheduled a CT to be done. Kurt and I took him to the hospital early in the morning and waited to have our little E sedated for the test. While we were waiting for the Pediatric Sedation Team to get everything set up, the NP asked to look report of the ultrasound and then decided that she wanted to have a MRI done instead of the CT. That decision sent us home until they could squeeze us in that afternoon.


We returned to the hospital about 1:30pm and waited again for the Sedation Team. We took little E back to a room where the torture began. Our poor little boy was pricked 7 times trying to get an IV into his little veins. It was so sad!!! I was holding him down on the bed, watching the needles fish around inside of both of his hands and both sides of his head (where the IV ended up being placed). Poor Kurt was left to just watch Easton kick and scream. At one point he was looking at Easton while the nurse had his head squished sideways on the bed, and I swear Easton saw him and said the saddest "DAAAAAAD" I've ever heard. After the IV was placed and the meds were pushed through, he calmed down and then fell into a deep slumber where I hope he forgot everything that had just happened to him.


The nurses wrapped him up in a blanket and also covered up the blood that was everywhere from their efforts of getting an IV in, and then put his baseball blanket on top of him. It didn't even look like our son was on the bed, it literally looked like a little pile of blankets were left waiting to be cleaned up by the janitorial staff. Finally the the sedation part of the procedure was over and somehow we got through that whole ordeal.

Next, the MRI. We followed little Easton down several halls to the machine where he would spend the next hour of his life. They placed his little body on this cradle type thing that held his body still. Then wrapped him with Velcro straps and then taped his forehead down to the machine. We were asked to find a seat and perhaps grab a bite to eat. We were told that he would probably be in the MRI room for about half an hour. After we heard him scream for about 3 minutes and then suddenly stop, the machine started up again and he was in there for another 30 minutes. Each minute that went by left horrifying thoughts in my head and "what ifs" about his future. My stomach felt sick and when the nurses came out with him after the test and then didn't say anything about the MRI, I mentally prepared myself for the worst. We walked back down the halls to the room where he was stabbed and waited for him to wake up. Still nothing about the MRI or if they saw anything on the computers. I wanted to ask the nursed soooooo bad but at the same time had no desire to hear anything. So we gave Easton a bottle of Pedialyte (he had to drink clear fluids before they could release him) and then packed up our stuff to go home. The nurse told us that they would call us in the morning to see how the night went.

Morning came and sure enough the nurse called. I reported that Easton was back to his normal self and that he seemed to be doing fine. She asked a few questions and then told me that she was going to check the computers to see if the results were up. They were and to our relief there was no appearance of any malignant tumors but he had a venous verix, which she told me was something kind of like a varicose vein on the back of the neck. PHEW!!!!! I don't' know what this means for his future, but to hear NO TUMOR was sooooooo nice. We're going to follow up with a vein specialist and find out more info, but for now I am totally OK with the findings.

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hAlLoWeEn

What do you get when two witches, a frog and a scary bride carve pumpkins?

Jacoby met up with us for trick-or-treating. I love his costume.

FREE Snuggie Blanket

OK, so I just found a link to get a free Snuggie Blanket. I've always wanted to try one of these blankets so of course I signed up as fast as I could. Thanks to the Savvy Shopper for finding this great deal.

Party in the USA

I'm admitting it. . . . I love Miley Cyrus' new song "Party in the USA." I think the girls and I listened to this song at least 15 times yesterday, and yes Sadie almost has the whole song memorized. Cassie even sings along as she shakes her little body, it's way too cute.

Throwback Thursday

I can't believe my Little E is already 6 months old. Here he is at 2 weeks. Thank you Britt for taking these awesome pictures.

Here are some pictures of him at 5-6 months.

Isn't he just adorable!?!

Back to School

FYI: My computer is not behaving. For some unknown reason to me my drives are no longer recognized by my computer so I haven't been able to retrieve any pictures from my camera. I'm going crazy. Luckily I have been able to use some of my good friends and neighbors working computers to snatch my pictures. So on with the post.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

I just want to start off by saying that I did NOT cry this year and I still can't believe that 50% of my children our old enough to go to school.

Sadie started school a week before Jessica did which was kind of nice for our family. It gave Jessica a little more time to get ready. Sadie did awesome!!! Her teacher, Mrs. Heaton, was Sadie's music teacher last year and Sadie loves her. It was really nice to have someone who Sadie already knew for the transition of kindergarten to 1st grade. I think she is going to have a lot of fun this year.

Jessica's first day of school was a bit different that Sadie's. There was a Safety assembly scheduled on the first day of Kindergarten this year which made for a little disorganization. We went to school and straight to that school yard for the assembly. We all kind of stood around and waited for it to start. Right afterwards we took Jess to her class and said goodbye. We each had a big hug goodbye from Jess and off she went. Luckily she has about 6 kids from the ward in her class, including Emily Bond. Jess and Emily just stuck together and helped each other out.

Jessica was able to get evaluated for speech during the first week back to school (the week that Sadie started) and is ready to start speech this week. I am very grateful that we got things going early.

Carpooling worked out for the best. I am taking my two kids and two other kids from our neighborhood every morning to school. This will make me wake up early and get ready to go before my kids wake up. I am actually grateful for this because I need this in my life to keep me organized as sane. It actually works out great for me because the parents of the other two kids pick up Sadie & Jessica from school. Now I can let Easton nap when he needs to. A huge blessing in my life.

Last Week

Last week I packed up the van and four kids and drove to my parents house to spend some time with them. Kurt was able to join us Friday evening after he got off work. We did it all: searched for golf balls, drove through Yellowstone National Park, went fishing, went golfing, watched the rodeo, rode the rides at the carnival and most important of all...relaxed.

Just A Reminder

Just a reminder about the coupon party I'm hosting tomorrow night at my house @ 6pm. I really am excited to have someone teach everyone about coupon shopping because it is the funnest way to shop. I have never spent so little and gotten so much. I have a stocked pantry and I've been able to try foods that I would usually never buy. So now onto my steal of a deal. I have to start out apologizing for blogging about another one of my shopping steals but this one was sooooo good that I had to share it. I promise that this one will be the last shopping post I will ever make, well maybe. I had my first money maker today and I can hardly contain myself, so that's why I'm posting and I hope this does not come across as bragging I just truly am so excited that I have to show ya all.

Rite Aid

Buy 3 Air Wick Freshmatic Ultra i-Motion Starter Kit on Sale %50 for $6.99

Use 3 $6/1 (9-20-09) SS-8/9

Buy 2 Scotch Magic Tape 3 pack on Sale for 2/$3

Use 2 .50/1 (11-30-09) RP-8/9 or (8-31-09) RP-6/28

Buy 1 Scotch Pop-Up Tape Deskgrip Dispenser on Sale for $2.49

Use 1 $2/1 MFC found @ www.3m.com

Plus submit for SCR for additional $2.49

Use a $5/$25 coupon before any other coupons are used

Total OOP = $1.18

After SCR = -$1.31

Can you believe that, I made $1.31 off of that purchase.

She Finally Lost It!!!

"I have the MOST EXCITING NEWS for you..." is what Sadie said to almost everyone she called the second after she lost her first tooth. It was a long battle. After convincing herself that her tooth was loose for almost a year, it actually started to wiggle about two months ago. Finally, she could join the toothless grin club, which she so desparetly wanted to be a part of, since all her friends were long time members. Then it happened, she finally lost it. I'll never forget how excited she was, running down the stairs holding her prized possession in hand and shouting that she lost her tooth.

I LOVE Albertson's

7 boxes of cereal

2 boxes of Nurtri-Grain Bars

3 cans of tuna

5 boxes of pop-tarts

1 rubbermaid water bottle

1 Glade gel warmer

Total out of pocket = $12.32

After Mail-In rebate = $2.32 ($0.12 an item)

Saved = $60.82

I still can't believe that coupon shopping pays off this much, I LOVE IT!!!

What just happened?

What Just Happened!?!

Well, that could have been what Kurt thought when he heard a loud popping noise Friday evening when he closed our van's rear door. However, I'm pretty sure that thought was followed by a few choice words not worth mentioning :) Who would have thought that the handle bars on your child's bike would go thru your back window.

Coupon Party

So I'm a total coupon dork right now and to prove it I'm going to be hosting a coupon party. I know it sounds weird but it's a party that teaches you how to shop with coupons. It's totally free and you don't have to buy anything. So if anyone is interested it is going to be on August 13th @ 6:00pm, at my house. Let me know if you want to attend, I have to have a headcount to let the girl know how many print outs to bring.

We could have been rich

According to Cassie, the last fruit snack that she just shoved into her mouth looked like Jesus. I wonder how much that would have gone for on Ebay? We could have been rich!

4th of July & Parents Homecoming

Well we had another AWESOME 4th of July!!! This year we started the celebrations with a much anticipated trip to Lagoon. Now that Kurt and myself are out numbered 4 to 2 and the younger two are a handful, we decided to let Kurt go to Lagoon with Sadie and Jessica, while I stayed home with Cass and Easton. It was great! Unfortunately for Kurt and the older girls it rained half of the time they were there which meant that they didn't get to ride as many rides as they normally do. To make up for the lack of rides Kurt and his brothers let the kids play some games. I'm not sure what game it was but after Kurt and Tyler both tried to win the grand prize Sadie stepped up and tried her luck. After winning a small stuff thing, Kurt told her to aim for the red thing-a-ma-jig (a hole in which the ball is supposed to fall into) Sadie let go of her ball and after it bounced around a few times, it landed right in the red hole. She won the biggest stuffed pug I've ever seen. Needless to say she was ecstatic and paraded that thing everywhere. I first saw it when I opened Grandma Peden's front door and saw Sadie carrying it on her shoulders up the walkway. I was a little surprised and a little proud when I heard the story behind the stuffed dog.

On Friday we had our annual Peden Classic Golf Tournament. This year it was held in Preston, Idaho. It was fun, hot and long. I think I'm only good for 12 holes; however, I did win the women's long drive competition. Take that boys, Justin did help my golf game out a little. (Justin is the head golf pro at Talon's Cove that coached our women's golf clinic that we went to the week before).

Later that evening, we all went to the Middle School to watch Kurt's dad perform with his High School Band at their 40th reunion. He did awesome!!! Our girls had a blast dancing with anyone and everyone who would dance with them.

A first for the family Peden gathering: Malad City Softball Tournament. We started on Friday night with a win and then played three games on Saturday. Wow, was I out of shape!!!!! I played catcher all day on Saturday and honestly could not go down the stairs normally after that. We played well but lost momentum with each game. I don't know if we will play next year.

We enjoyed the parade on the 4th and the girls did great in their races. The family BBQ was excellent and the watching the fireworks was great. Sometime during the fireworks Sadie started shouting: "Light up your night Fireworks, Ligth up your night." I don't know where she got that but we were all laughing. It was a great 4th of July and we're already looking forward to next year.

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WELCOME HOME MOM & DAD

July 8th finally came!!! Sadie made a paper chain, starting at 55 days, to count down the days until my parents were to come home from their mission in Bulgaria. They arrived at 11pm in Salt Lake, and our girls could not have been more excited to go to the airport and pick them up. Cassie was an angel and went right up to my parents. We were all a little nervous to see how she would react to them, since she was 6 months old when they left. It was also so nice to be able to introduce them to Little Easton for the first time. He of course was great and had no problem letting his Grandparents hold him.

A few hours before we left to pick up my parents I took the girls for a walk to kill some time. We went and visited with the Carters and while we were there Jessica told us to watch her as she ran to the mailbox and back. Just as she was running from the grass to the driveway she tripped and landed on her face with her arms pinned under her body. It was sooooo painful to watch. We picked her off of the cement and saw that her cute little face had started to bleed. Her upper lip and nose kissed the cement, and her mouth was bleeding a little bit as well. You can see the damage in some of the pics.

One of things we did while my parents stayed with us was make patriotic fruit kabobs. They were so good and Sadie and Jessica LOVED making & eating them. I'm pretty sure fruit kabobs were a hit.

Here's a pic with my mom with Easton. I'm pretty sure she missed seeing and holding her grand kids while they were on a mission.

We're glad to have you back Mom & Dad.

Happy Birthday Cassie

Happy Birthday Cassie!!!

Cassie turned 2 on Saturday June 27th. I only have one picture from her birthday party because I was video taping the whole thing and forgot to take pics. The picture above is Cassie with a sleeve of Oreo cookies that Grandma Donna & Grandpa Kelly gave her after she told them about 100 times that she wanted cookies for her birthday. Cassie was sooooo spoiled by all of the family who were in Malad for Kurt's Grandmother's family reunion, thank you everyone for all of the presents!!! I think we should plan all of our children's birthdays around family events:) At first Cassie was a little timid at opening presents, but by the time she got near the end of her pile she was really getting into it. All we could do was laugh at her cute little ways and personality. We just can't wait to see how this little one is going make the "terrible twos" her own. I can just bet that this upcoming year will be lots of fun for the whole family. Cassie we love you and are so thankful to have you in our family.

Easton turned 4 months old on Cassie's birthday. We took him in for his well child check up and he is doing great.

• Height = 25.5 inches 90%


• Weight = 15 pounds 90%


• Head Circumference = 42 cm 90%

We can't get enough of our Little E. He is soooo smiley and warms up to everyone. I absolutely LOVE the fact that he sleeps close to 10 hours a night and has for the past 6 weeks. He is definitely a trooper for dealing with the constant mauling from his older sisters and the hundreds of kisses he gets from me. I just can't believe how old he is and how fast time flies.

Here are a couple of pcitures I found of just Cassie and Easton together.

A little bit of this & that

First of all, I love the classifieds on ksl.com. We sold a bookcase in 20 minutes, a day bed in 2 hours and a recliner in 5 days, oh and my in laws sold their 4 wheeler in 2 hours. I don't think it gets any better than that.

This past Friday me and my friends put our crafts in the Lehi Round-Up Days craft boutique and were only able to sell on friday because on Saturday we pretty much were forced to take down our booth after a major storm came thru. It was fun while it lasted I just wish it would have lasted longer.

Sunday: Trevor and Heather blessed Jakoby or as Jess calls him "Little Cobes.". It was so nice to hang out with family and to also celebrate Father's Day.

Sunday Afternoon: After the luncheon, we all took a little rest and Easton rolled over for the first time.

Monday Morning: We talked to my parents over the computer for the last time on their mission in Bulgaria. The start touring the country and the Greek islands this week and will come home on July 8th. We are so excited to see them.

Monday: Cassie had a really bad diaper, the kind that only the parents should have to change. Anyways to make this even worse she had diarrhea. I told her it was ooowee yucky diarrhea, she however heard it as "oooweerrhea" and then said it all day long.

Monday Evening: For FHE Kurt decided to have a lesson on marriage, dating and kissing. Kurt was telling the girls that when they go on a date, a very nice boy will come and pick them up in his car, before he could say another word Jessica interrupted and said..."or a motorcycle daddy." Kurt was just as quick to respond with a ..."um, no he wont Jess. There will be no motorcycles."

Tuesday Evening: Just for the record I'm not trying to poke fun at my husband but this was kind of funny, considering his job. I was sitting at the computer with Heather when I thought I heard a knock at the door. I looked out the window and saw a kid on his bike staring at our house. I went and opened the door and another boy was standing on our porch and then asked. . ."um we were wondering if you needed someone to mow your lawn?" I wanted to burst out laughing but politely told the boy that my husband managed a lawn care company and just hadn't gotten around to mowing our lawn in awhile. Oh, if only Kurt would have been home to have answered the door.

Take that Albertsons

Ok, you can laugh at me for posting this but I have to because this will go down in history as my best shopping trip ever. As of last week I have really gotten into the whole coupon shopping thing and I'll admit it's addicting. Anyway, today I went to Albertsons and bought all of this...

for only $4.26 (that's with tax included).

Can you believe that!?! I'm still in shock and totally excited. So yes, that makes me the typical Utah SAHM who is coupon shopping and then blogging about it.

Great deal: I went to Smiths today and found a mail in rebate offer in the beer isle from Budweiser. If you buy $10 worth of water, ice, salty snacks, pizza dips, buns...they'll send you $10.00 back. If you live in Utah you don't have to buy beer to use this. So what ever you buy you get for free. They are also offering the same deal on suntanning oils and lotion.

Throwback Thursday

I just have to laugh at these Senior Pictures of Kurt and myself. I could only find one of Kurt, yet I love this picture because of the story behind it. I was told that his younger brother Tyler took the wallet sized pictures to school and sold them for $5.00 a piece to all the girls in Ontario, OR. Yes I know, I had big poofy hair.

Class of "93"

Class of "95"

We had to add some of our favorite songs from highschool. Hope you enjoy!!!

Long Time No Post

Well I have a lot of catching up to do and I guess I'll start with Memorial Day Weekend. This year we went back up to my parent's cabin in Star Valley, WY. It was so nice to get away and relax. My awesome mother-in-law watched Cassie and Easton for us, so with the younger 50% of our children with Donna and the more responsible 50% with us, I was able to sleep in and take naps on our vacation. Kurt, BJ and Danny had fun on the golf course and got in around 27 holes of golf on Saturday. They even let Sadie and Jessica practice putting. On Sunday we paced up and headed over to Malad for the 2nd half of our weekend. We visited with family and went to the surrounding cemeteries to pay respect to grandparents and other family members. The only negative part of our trip was finding out that Easton had an allergic reaction to formula on Sunday. I had pumped enough milk to last up until Sunday morning and after drinking the similac his body, except for his legs, turned bright red. I felt soooooo bad for Little E and I am still hoping that it wasn't the formula. Sometime this week we are going to give it to him again and see if it really was the formula that caused the reaction. I really am hoping it wasn't.

Next. . . . We had a yard sale last Saturday. We did alright = $165.00, and our kids did awesome, they made $25.00 selling cupcakes, cookies and apple juice in two hours. They would like to have a garage sell everyday.

Last. . . . We blessed Easton this past Sunday. It is always a special moment for every family to bless their baby and this one was no different. I do have to laugh a little because Easton cried throughout the whole blessing. The binkie was in place but slipped through Spencer's and Randy's arms and then fell to the floor. Kurt was great and didn't let the crying affect Easton's blessing. We had a wonderful brunch afterwards at our house and are very grateful to all who helped out with the food.

I love this picture!!!

I just love how he is looking up at me in this one with his arms kind of folded.

Of course we had to take a picture with his little buddy Jakoby. They're getting so big.

The proud parents. (Not the greatest picture)

Just for fun. . . . Sadie asked me to "fast forward backwards" her movie the other day. I kind of like it better than rewind.




Oh and the cutest. . . . We went grocery shopping today and while I was putting Cassie and Easton into the car, Sadie and Jessica were staring at something. I asked them what they were looking at and they pointed to a puddle of water and said, "Look Mom, a rainbow fell down." I looked at the water and saw that there was oil in it.