Caroling

This is how we carol in the south

No really, we were on our way to carol.

Happy Birthday Reed!

The day after Thanksgiving Reed turned the big 33. We've spent the last 3 weeks wondering when we turned into the grown-ups.

Reed deferred his celebrations 24hours. Although his bday was on Friday he actually spent all day Saturday celebrating. And by celebrating I mean parked on the couch, watching rivalry week of Football. What can I say? He was the birthday boy...

and he's earned it. This past year I have come to appreciate Reed is a new light. He's an amazing father and I always knew that he was a amazing partner. This year I discovered that he's also an amazing husband; for over 3 months I depended on him for emotional, physical and spiritual strength that he was happy to give. If that (plus, 33 years of life), doesn't deserve a day of football I don't know what does.

As proof that he's still human here's my current favorite pic:

While he may have fatherhood, husband-dom, fantasy dominance and overall awesomeness figured out here's to the next fantastic 33 years spent working on humility :)

Happy Thanksgiving

In an effort to clear my conscience and my camera before the holiday, here's a quick recap of our festivities thus far.

Behold; the first annual Smyrna Turkey Bowl. Since Matts decided he was skilled enough to play in both the kiddie and adult games it was also the debut of "THE BRICK"

Family Pics

While Hayley and Kyle were here over Thanksgiving weekend we took Hayley up on her offer to do some spontaneous family pics. Although I can't say we got a great one of all 4 of us, we got awesome pics in every other combination.

Favorite Things

In the Middle of the Night

"Mom, I feel miserable...it was my favorite thing and now it's broken..."

What are you talking about?

"My sniffer. It was my favorite thing about my body and now it's broken."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAYSON, GRAY!

It's hard to believe our little man is 3! (Actually, if you ask him, "My 5). Time really does fly. We had a crazy weekend filled w/Ranger graduations, soccer parties and trips. Happily, Gray was convinced it was all in his honor.

Grayson:
You are a joy to have in our family. You love to laugh, you love to play basketball, you love to find treats. Basically, you LOVE life and will find any reason to laugh. We love you!

Camping

Friday night my boys hit a milestone that will make all the Peterson men proud. They are now officially campers. They both made it through a chilly night with their Daddy snuggled in sleeping bags and warmed by a ROARING fire.

Just a few pics and words to recapture the night: Machetes, tunnel trolls, acorn throwing squirrels, marshmellow sandwiches(aka smores), scary stories and happy, happy boys.

The tunnel

G and S. The littlest and most cheerful campers.

The pyrotechs
The audience

The supplies
A big thank you to the Partridges who so generously donated their yard and wilderness for an unforgetable evening. And an even bigger thank you to Reed and all the other Dads who responded so willingly to the 4pm call of "you're going camping in 2 hours".

Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween with a weeks worth of activities that culminated with treat or treating in the rain. Luckily, clones are tough.

Matts broke my poor, overacheiving heart when he declared that not only did he want to be Captain Rex, he wanted Captain Rex from Walmart. He wouldn't even let me embellish with a belt, blaster, shoe-covers; NOTHING. Put that down as #111 of things I swore I wouldn't let my kiddos do. Happily, Halloween worked it's magic and In Matts' 6 year-old mind that white, silky jumpsuit transformed him into a battle hardened clone captain.

Gray, of course, had to follow in Matts' footsteps and was Commander Cody. For our little treat monger the magic of Halloween is people handing out candy with no strings attached. After a night of trick or treating Gray walked in and shrieked "I got Candy!!!" at the top of his lungs in complete disbelief.

All the very best

The boys had a fantastic weekend filled with their favorite things; Grandma Diane, soccer, army, Aunt Hayley, Rambo and did we mention Grandma Diane? After a relaxing weekend in Atlanta, interrupted briefly for a freezing game of soccer, Grandma headed down to Columbus w/Hayley for a few days. On Wednesday I packed up two very happy boys to meet Grandma and Hayley on base. We hit up the Nat'l infantry museum, ate at the PX and rough-housed w/Rambo.

This is how we play soccer here in the ATL

The "wingmen" after Mckay's first goal

Does life get any better?

Ahoy Matey!

Last, but not least, while we were at the beach pirates came ashore. Luckily, Q had left a very polite note and instead of slitting our throats in the night they left us treasure.

Mexico Beach

After I finished the race we took the week off. And I do mean off. No work, no school, limited phone/internet, no restaurants; just the fabulous beach, good friends and entirely too much food.

Trek to the Tri, Part II

Just when you think you know what to expect, life throws you a curve. In all our planning, scheming, talking and training we NEVER talked about rain/wind/miserable storms in our sunny, Mexico Beach, race planning. Consider us schooled.

Trek to the Tri #2 ended in the pouring rain. It was freezing for the swim (the racers huddled in the ocean water pre-start), let up for the bike (thank heaven) and was just plain sloshy for the run. On the plus side, we all pulled through quite respectably (placing 1st or 2nd in our divisions) and I felt great post-race. I guess it's a testiment to the pure awesomeness of my training partners, and our matching paisley tanks, that I'm already planning on next year.

Defining Characteristics

Mattson: Memory of an elephant

***Matts is a member of the reading club at school. This gives him the great privilege of checking out two books at a time and returning them once he can pass them off.***

Grandma Candi : Wow, you've gotten really good at reading. I'm so proud of you.

Matts: I'm so good at reading I can even do it with my eyes closed. Do you want to see?

Grayson: Sense of humor

***We've had all manner of germs flying around our house/school/church. Consequently we've had alot of discussions about germs and how they're spread.***

Gray: My share my germs with Thomas. That was fun.

It's raining, it's pouring.

Just in case you were wondering what do to in a flood:

"...Turn around from flooded areas. Do not drown..."
(According to the weather alert at the bottom of the TV)

The ABC's of Mattson

I was going over Matts'reading list when I noticed a trend:
(VERBATIM)

1. You: You must go conquer the enemies
2. Her: The soliders rescued her
3. Must: I must obey the orders to shoot the enemies
4. Yes: Yes, I can beat the enemies
5. Dime: I get a dime if I beat the enemies
6. Side: I must shoot the enemies on the other side
7. Walk: Don't walk in front of the shooting range
8. Lake: The battle was at the lake
9. Shore: I attacked the enemies on the shore
10. Eagle: Try to shoot as high as an eagle
11. Wet: Don't get wet when you're trying to shoot
12. Take: We must take positions
13. Car: I drive in the car to get to the battle
14. Are: I am a solider. We are the best
15. Other: I must shoot the guys on the other team
16. Sitting: To get the best shot I need to be sitting

Do you see a theme?

In a galaxy far, far away...

After 3 years of talking, planning and dreaming we did it. We finally made it to Dragoncon. What is Dragoncon you ask? Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Basically the most awesomest convention ever. It's a sci-fi/fantasy/gamer mecca. Talk about people watching! While waiting for the parade Matts and Gray (and Sadi, Mckay and Jackson) dueled with Darth Vader, defeated Boba Fete, met Jack Sparrow and traded sniping techniques with Halo soliders. The parade lasted more than 30 minutes and was a little (or big) boy's dream come true with over 2000 of their fantasies come to life. Even, Jabba the Hut Princess Leia was there :). The true highlight of the event was during the parade when Gray ran out into the street to duel with Darth Vader. Luckily, although they may dress a little differently, these citizens from a galaxy far, far away are good humored. The crowd joined right in and cheered our little padawan on.

First Day of School

Better late than never :)

Happy Birthday Elle

Seven years ago at 12:55am we became parents. We were worried that Elle had just missed the school deadline and spent an hour debating whether or not she should start Kindergarten early. Within a week we were debating whether she should have a heart transplant or the norwood surgery. Interesting how life doesn't always go as planned.

To celebrate we'll be going to McDonald's, watching Beauty and the Beast and eating PINK cupcakes because, according to Matts and Gray, that is exactly how it is supposed to be.

Morning at the Peterson House

G: My getting so big and so strong. My the biggest. My bigger than Mattson.
M: Nuh-uh. I'm five.
G: My think I'm six. My so so big.
K: You're both big and strong and if you eat your food you'll get bigger and stronger.
M: Mom, whose the biggest in your family?

CONVERSATION ON BIGGEST PEOPLE AND HOW "LITTLE" BROTHERS CAN END UP THE BIGGEST. CONVERSATION PROGRESSES TO BIRTH ORDER.

G: My first baby is a yellow baby. My like yellow.
M: I'll have a bum baby

HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER

G: My eat your bum

ALMOST ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING...sudden stop

M: What's that smell?
K: I don't smell anything.
M: No, I have super good smell, I think I'm going to throw up. What's that smell?
G: That's my smell. It my bum.

BACK TO HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER

GO DUKE!

While Reed was away in Barcelona, suffering through meetings in chateaus and driving through the winding roads of the south of France the boys and I were driving through the completely linear roads of Georgia and South Carolina to Duke. My brother, Thomas, was attending a basketball camp so we enjoying spending the days with Grandma Candi and the nights watching plenty of stupid movies :). Walking around Cameron in between Tommy boy's games, Gray was in heaven. He just kept repeating "basketball, basketball" and running up to all the displays. The ultimate was when he walked into the Duke bookstore, ran up to a shirt and said "It's a basketball shirt, I've gotta have it." Needless to say, Grandma Candi obliged. Oh, don't worry about Matts, he managed to find an army (camo) duke hat. Is there any doubt I live in the house of testosterone?

Potter Mania

Matts (coming out of his room during breaktime): Mom, I have something really important to tell you. Dumbledore wasn't just the greatest wizard ever, he was also the greatest headmaster."

I love it.

Cousins!

We had my sister, Catherine, her husband Scott and their two little girls Madi and Izzy here for the weekend. We had lots of good cousin time, learned how to play pinochle, and I got to go on a FAST run with my little sister, aka superwoman. Not a bad agenda for less than 24 hours. It seems we are our Father's daughters :)

Manliness

We recently started our summer playgroup with some new friends. As I picked up up Matts from the first day the first words out of Karen's mouth were "there is not a drop of estrogen in Mattson's body". As I reorganized the playroom with a sniper bucket, a star wars bucket, a lightsaber bucket, a truck bucket, a car bucket, a construction bucket, a jedi bucket, a dinosaur bucket, and a tool bucket I had to agree. That said, I had to laugh when I uploaded these pics from my camera.

Matts doing yoga with me.

There's nothing wrong with a boy in pink train pajamas.

A wild weekend

We had the great pleasure of going on safari this weekend. I was absolutely blown away. It was honestly one of the coolest things we've done in Georgia. We got to feed a multitude of bison/deer/other hoofed animals. They would stick their entire head in the van trying to get the food (and the kiddo's fingers). We discover that they have nasty breath and gargantuan tongues. For Reed the highlights were the giraffe, the rhinoceros and the lightning-fast finger-eating ostriches. I loved the ligers (Chelsea; they even had two babies). I thought Shasta was the only liger -they're much better alive. For Matts the highlight was the pigs(?) and taking pictures of "Anything beautiful", such as every parrot at the park. Our fearless Gray would giggle every time he fed an animal (by himself)and even touched the rhino. I would highly, highly recommend this to anyone in the area.