Trampoline Fun

On this cold gloomy day (today) I was flipping through the pictures to see what I could blog about.  I came across these & remembered that nice VERY WARM day.  It gives me goose bumps thinking about it being that warm again.  I couldn't resist going outside to play with the kids & jump on the trampoline.  I love getting their in action pictures.

 Since this girl could walk (which she did at fairly early age) she has been comfortable jumping around on the trampoline.  It's weird to see her little bitty self jump so high.  But I am convinced she is somehow made of 1% (if not more) rubber.

 Of course, I couldn't resist joining in on the fun.  If you by chance notice how much the trampoline is sagging.  Please know that this picture was taken while I was jumping, not just standing still.  Andrew was not able to get a picture of me mid air.  Maybe that is a good thing though.

 Next Andrew started to turn his flips.  Yes, he can do a complete flip/somersault mid air before landing on his bottom.

 My hair got a little wild & crazy from rolling around & having fun.

 I loved my shadow & wanted to savor the moment.

I can't wait for the weather to warm up again so I can join my kids outdoors.  I too often forget to slow down & play with them.  It does all of us a lot of good.

Vloggin' Wednesday - Fame, Furniture and Elephants

I had technical difficulties in posting my vlog this morning. Since I am in Chicago, with a friend, who is auditioning for the TV show, X Factor, I had to wait for my favorite daughter, Angel, to get home and post this to y'all. Enjoy and I can't wait to tell you all about my trip to the Windy City.

Catch Up

I just posted several entries for y'all.  I was seriously behind.  Still am.  The 4 posts below are just from the first 7 days of April!!!!!  I'm getting there though.  I hope to post some more tomorrow and then I have my vlog all cued up & ready for Wednesday.  Got that done today : D  So you'll have to sit in torment waiting.  Not really.  This blog is not suppose to be only about me.  It's about the family.  The zoo.  So I'm trying hard to get everything blogged about with a little sprinkle of just me in there too.  Happy reading y'all!

Happy Birthday Jim!

Jim turned 41 a few weeks ago.  Leading up to this day Jim kept asking if I was planning any get togethers for him.  He knows that I am notorious for planning parties, mostly surprise ones, for him.  I kept telling him no I wasn't planning anything.  He had a really hard time believing me.  He'd even try hard to look deep into my eyes to see if I was trying to pull a fast one.  That of course would make me laugh and he couldn't tell if I was being silly or being serious.  Our day (s) really were too busy for planning anything extra.

Anyway, per tradition I made Jim's favorite cake, German Chocolate.  From scratch, of course.  Earlier in the evening Jim saw me making some cupcakes.  When he inquired about them I told him I was making them for the Jazz Showcase, which was totally & completely true.  However, as soon as he left the house I got to work on his special cake.  He walked in right when I was putting the frosting on, but I managed to hide it from view.  When he walked out of the kitchen I quickly took it downstairs.  He knows I "hid" things down there on top of the washer so I made sure I hid it extra good.

That day was busy & crazy with many of us having activities that took us here, there & everywhere.  We were not all home as a family until almost 9 o'clock & finally the kids & I were able to celebrate his birthday with him.

The kids had made him some homemade presents, cards & drawings.  Andrew gets so cute & will dig out his favorite matchbox cars & will "wrap" them for Jim to open.  It's such a big deal for Andrew to part with his favorite cars for dad's sake.  Jim usually plays with them for a bit, then puts them into his sock drawer where he tells Andrew he'll take good care of them.  After a few days Andrew forgets they are in there & Jim will add them back to the toybox and Andrew rarely ever realizes they are back.  He has even given the same car to Jim on more than one occasion.  Gifts are not Jim's love language so I wasn't really planning on getting him anything.  He SO hard to buy for him anyway.  The kids came up with an excellent idea though.  Jim is always "borrowing" their ipods so he can have something to listen to, especially when he runs.  So I went & bought him his own ipod.  He was surprised & had no clue that I had gotten him anything.  I had put Mandy in charge of putting a playlist together so he could have it pre-loaded & ready to go.  I ended up having to re-do it though because she had nothing but Taylor Swift (which she insists he LOVES) and Justin Bieber on it.  Go figure.

Impact

Impact is the name of our church's Jr. High youth group.  They meet on Wednesday nights.  Most weeks they have some kind of theme that goes along with game time and really just to have fun & get the kids involved.  Our church is much more than just reading your Bible and learning about God.  Not that those things are wrong, if that is all a church has.  We all know it's the solid foundation to which everything else is based.    Our church does a lot to reach out to kids (and really anyone who walks through the doors) to get them into a true relationship with each other, the leaders & ultimately Jesus Christ.

So I snapped a few shots a few weeks ago when they had rock star night.  I had a lot of fun fixing Mandy's hair & make up.  The whole time I'm fixing her hair, I'm thinking.....I can't believe we really used to do this to our hair!!!!

Winter Jam

Winter Jam is a concert tour that features several Christian singers & bands.  They all perform  in the same night & have breaks in between that feature some preaching.  The concert can last anywhere from 3 - 4 hours.  Jim was suppose to take the kids.  I had opted to stay home with the younger ones.  Jim ended up being sick and I had the "duty" of taking the kids.  I really, really was looking forward to a quiet night at home with a chance to get somethings done & get to bed early.  Instead I had to drive 40 minutes, rock it out for several hours & drive another 40 minutes home.  Sometimes "duty" can be really fun.  In the big picture getting home at midnight and only having a few hours of sleep was worth the whole concert experience.

Here is Mandy & Nina waiting for the concert to start:

John & I.  I really, really, REALLY love this picture.  It's a rare photo that when I look at it I say "my son looks EXACTLY like me!!!!"

Francesca Batistilli singing.  She is so sweet and we all LOVE her music.

I was up walking around & checking out the tables.  I had heard Jason Castro would be there.  He sang at the pre-concert, but we missed it.  I didn't make the big connection though until I saw him.  For those who don't know, he was on American Idol a few years ago.  It's one of the few AI seasons that I completely watched.  I don't remember exactly where he finished, I want to say he was in the top 5.

Anyway, from a distance, I'm like oh, there is that American Idol dude.  As I got closer though, I sort of turned into this googley eyed teenage girl.  I summoned the girls to come meet him.  I don't know who giggled more, them or me.  We had to wait in line to meet him.  He was very nice & soft spoken.  I chatted with him about his Over the Rainbow performance (look it up on youtube) which I absolutely loved.  I say it all the time....I'm easy to please.  Meeting people like this make me feel like I'm meeting the greatest celebrity on earth.  And it's fun!!


Mandy has long talked about being on American Idol when she gets old enough.  I mean that girl has her audition all planned out for the day she is old enough to go.  As he signed her shirt I told her that was as close to American Idol she is ever gonna get.  That just launched her into her speech about how she WILL be on AI someday.  (Btw, look at those dreamy handsome AMAZING eyes in his poster.  Ahhhhh, as I melt into butter).

Here are the Newsboys.  I forgot to upload the picture of when the drum set & drummer rises up on it's side and spins around.  It was pretty neat.  All of the artist were great to listen to & jam out with.  Since it's held in this huge arena with thousands of people you can dance & sing at the top of your lungs and no one thinks anything of it.

Afterwards we got more autographs.  This is the Newsboys again.

This is Sidewalk Prophets.  They are coming to Galesburg to put on a concert.  Kids are excited about that one too.

This is Chris August.  He just won the Dove award (think Grammy's, but within the Christian realm) for Best New Artist of the year.  I told him he had this Buddy Holly look going on.  It was cool.  He, along with all the artist we met, were so nice & chatty.  We all had a great night at Winter Jam & look forward to going to it again next year.

Lincoln Presidental Half Marathon

Jim & I ran a half marathon early in April.  We were able to make this experience extra fun.  For starters it was the first time Jim & I had been away from the kids in over 6 years.  Yeah, baby....bow-chica-wow-wow.  So we had fun taking off on our little road trip.  The race was in Springfield, IL so about a 3 hour trip.  We stayed at the Hilton and had a room up on the 16th floor.  It had such a nice view overlooking the area.  We had supper at the Olive Garden, shopped at Dick's Sporting Goods & then loaded up on Ben & Jerry's from Walgreens while lounging in our room that night.  Now ideally, that is not good pre-race eating.  We really wanted to enjoy our time so we just didn't care.

Per usual, especially with first time races, I had my camera along to make a picture diary of our race.  (Although, who am I kidding, I just always have my camera with me).  Here we are waiting for the race to start:

Here we are just a little under a mile into the race.  The house you see in the background is the Lincoln home.  The actual house that former President Lincoln lived in when he resided in Springfield.  It's neat to run right past history!  Later we also ran past Lincoln's tombstone & burial plot.

You can see our shadows as we run up to the Illinois state capital building.  Another historic building.  It was on these steps that Representative Lincoln gave his House Divided speech upon accepting the Republican nomination for President.

Here we are at the half way point.  I am detecting a massive difference in my my demeanor vs. Jim's.  Just noting that he looks like he's about to die and I'm super psyched and ready for more.

We did finish though. Side by side.  We can now say that we did this together.  Look at the neat medal we got. It's a big penny!

Afterward they had President Lincoln & his wife Mary Todd there to post for picture.  This Mr. Lincoln was very funny, hence my laugh in the picture.

I'm glad that Jim & I had the chance to do this together.  What great memories we will have to put in the Peterson history book.  Next we are looking forward to running a marathon together.

Third Thursdays Thoughts - Miracles

I am no stranger to Hearts at Home.  My journey with them began 10 years ago when Jim discovered them & told me to sign up for a conference.  I was a little upset with him over it.  I mean, exactly what was he implying when he told me I NEEDED a mothering conference.  Hmp!  The nerve of that man!  I went anyway and it turned out to be one of the best things Jim ever did for me.  Later I served on an actual Hearts team and helped lead the publishing aspect of the ministry.  When it came time for me to step down from that role Hearts was implementing the internet/facebook/blog aspect of reaching out to moms.  Perfect way for me to continue to serve and stay connected with the ministry.

So, you may wonder then, what is this all about.  I have joined their blog hop to help support and get the word out about their ministry.  I can testify first hand ladies (and gentlemen) that this is one top notch organization and I will do anything to get their material into your hands.  By participating in this blog hop I am going to give my thoughts on a particular topic and help link you to Hearts at Home.  I want you to participate too and comment on my post.  And I mean more than just Steph & Suzie too.  (As much as I LOVE them, I want more of you to comment.  Please.)  In the future I plan to offer some give aways (YES, FREE stuff!  woot woot!) that are Hearts at Home related.  I won't give you this big spiel each month, I'll just launch into the subject.  Like this:


Miracles?  Have you experienced any of them in your life?  I most certainly have.  If you are a mom or know a mom, you all know the wonder of growing a precious human being.  I mean, think about.  Two teeny tiny particles that can't be seen by the human eye grow into a person.  That itself IS a miracle.  God's precious miracle that He has given to so many of us either personally or through other ways (adoption).


I know that we all can think of other miracles in our lives.  It's easy to title them as coincidences or chance or lucky.  Really, though many of them are miracles.  I think of the above mentioned and remember how miraculous it was to see the teeny tiny perfectly formed four heart chambers of son's twin at only 6 week of development.  You might wonder....Carmen doesn't have twins.  Yes, in fact, John was a twin.  But that perfect little heart of baby #2 was not beating and I did not carry that twin to term.  As sad as that was I still think on the miracle of seeing his perfect little heart on that monitor. 


Other miracles I have experienced is when John fell out of our second story home when he was 7 years old.  15 feet to the ground and the only injury he received was a contusion to his ankle.  He was riding his bike down the street two days later and telling me "dont' worry mom, I'll be ok".  Please explain that to me.  You can't.  It was a miracle.


How about when Mandy was being born and we suffered a severe case of shoulder dystocia.  Don't know what it is?  Look it up on webmd.  It's not for the faint hearted I guarantee.  Stuck she was for six minutes.  Turning blue from lack of oxygen.  When they finally got her out she was wisked away and I was warned of all the possible things that could be wrong with her.  Instead, we had a perfectly healthy baby girl.   I've recounted my exact birth story to many others in the ob business.  They all tell me the same thing.  It's a miracle that girl is alive & "normal".


I could go on and on and on.  Miracle after miracle.  I'm sure I could list at least one for each of our 6 kids and several for myself.  Even when it's not something big & grand or has a fascinating story attached to it there are many miracles in our lives.  I could tell you about some of my miracles that are being shown to me in the form of friendships (ones that I've never met in person and ones that I eat DQ blizzards with).  OK!  Now I'm going to cry.  You get what I'm saying though.  Just look around, we are surround by miracles, even if we do recognize it as that.


Ok, go blow your nose.  Stop your sniffling!  Comment & tell me about your miracles.  Or better yet, if you blog, write about it & make sure I see it.  Thank you for being a miracle in my life : )

Vloggin' Wednesday

I had this ingenious idea the other day to get my vlog video done in advance.  That way when it comes to my vlog day then all I have to do it copy & paste.  I am extra glad I did this, because then the next day my life took a little detour and I was in a (minor) car accident.  That is for another post though. I'm fine now, but it goes to show how everyday can make a difference in how you think, feel, process things, etc.  I did also go back & read Donald Millers blog.  I realized that I told you the wrong title of one of his books and I definately misquoted some of what I read on his blog that prompted todays subject.  I do mention that...."don't quote me exactly".  Just thought I'd double reinstate that.  Enjoy!

Family Pictures

Below you will find a slideshow of the pictures we had taken recently.  I added a few of the wrong pics.  Like one of the family ones Nina has her eyes closed.  We have another shot that looks the same, only slightly different and her eyes are open.  When they gave us the cd of pictures they included ALL the pictures taken, even the mess up ones & the before & after edited shots.  I'm too lazy to not stress over having all the EXACT perfect pictures in the slideshow.  You get the idea.  If you would like any of the photos please let me know which one & what size.  If I don't have it, I will order it, when we bought the cd we also bought the copyright so we can print what we want whereever we want.

We had these taken at our local Wal Mart.  I feel like I've cheated on some of my photography friends when I admit that.  I have some talented friends who have photo businesses and I've never called them to get pictures taken.  We are just too cheap thrifty with our money to pay studio prices.  Not that any of you are overpriced, just too pricey for us.  We paid plenty of money as it is for what we ordered from Wal Mart.  And honestly we've always gone to Wal Mart, well before I personally knew anyone with a photography business.  It's just what we are used to.  I've heard many comments about how good they are, much to the surprise of where we got them.  We've always had that kind of "luck" with our pictures at Wal Mart.  We've had some really, really good ones taken through out the years.

We had not had family pictures taken since baby Carmen was born.  So over 3 years ago.  Except for the wedding pictures (which we just asked a friend with a fancy camera to take pictures for us).  I don't know if we'll fall back into the habit of yearly pictures or not.  Up until 2007 we had them taken EVERY SINGLE year, without a miss.  In a few years we'll be looking at SENIOR pictures.  Oh, don't get my all teary....

Enjoy the pics & holler if you want a certain copy of a certain shot.

New Do

Brianna (Nina) has been sporting a new hair do.  She got a perm.  She's been bugging me for a little bit about getting one.  I tried to hold off as long as possible.  Up until about 2 years ago I was a very frequent perm getter myself.  Started in 2nd grade and kept going.  I want my kids to have as much unprocessed hair as possible.  Nothing against those that do, I just don't want them to get all caught up in the processing of their hair.  They have plenty of time in their lives to alter & add chemicals.  Why start them so young?    Just my point of view at this time.  Obviously though I gave into her getting a perm.  I said no plenty of times and she graciously accepted that answer for the time being.  I decided to let her get this done.  She looks awfully cute and does a great job of taking care of it.  Here's the pics of the process.

Drum roll please....prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My 1st vlog post!





I know I need to work on my camera placement. I didn't mean to cut off most of my chin in second video. Enjoy. Send feedback.

I know....I KNOW....

I haven't forgotten about my vlog.  Really I haven't.  I should have pre-warned you that it wouldn't happen this week.  It's crunch time for the Zumbathon. Which, in case you don't know, I am the head hancho of.  So I'm pulling some major hours at the Y.  Even when I do come home I STILL have work to do.  I mean, aside from all of the regular house work that awaits me.  I've always known that I could not be a working outside the home mom.  This week alone is reminder enough as to why I've never done it.

So, while yes I did take a few moments to update and post this entry.  It's all I'm taking the time to do.  I've even fallen behind on stalking following some of your blogs.  It's just that kind of a week.  Next week, I PROMISE!  The vlog is just the tip of the iceberg.  It's been a busy, I need to blog about that kind of week too.  So there is much more to come.  I may leave ya hanging for awhile, but I'll never leave ya.  EVER!  That is either a promise or a threat, you decide.