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.