COMPUTERS- Can we live without them for more than a week?

Well, we can answer that question and it is a great big NO! How did we become so dependent upon technology? I am finally posting after a very long time. There are many reasons why it has been so long. 1-My new preschool is taking a lot of time, mainly lesson planning; 2-New calling at church; 3-My camera is being funny and I can't get pics onto my computer. So, bottle all these things up and you all have to go without a post for a long time. And now here I am and I bet you're thinking - finally we are going to get some more posts. Well, our computer has finally given up. We have been without a computer for a little more than 2 weeks. It has been extremely hard! I am currently trying to find a talk show that asks if you can live without a computer and then Oprah comes out and gives all the participants a free computer!! I am here and ready, they wouldn't even have to wait to do their show, I have already done the hard part. Unless you don't want to know anything about the world or keep in touch with those that you can't via the phone (this includes mothers with kids at home, we all know what happens with kids when that phone rings!) this is completely impossible.
I am currently at my mothers typing this. Hopefully I can get a few pics up of the last few months, I know I feel so bad that it has been months since I put pics up. I am only here for 2 days, so I will see what I can do. But after that I can't promise when we will be back online. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Hopefully we will be back before then, but if we aren't we wish you a very happy holiday.

Listen to this!!!

I don't recall who told me about this, but Thank You! I love this arrangement. It is absolutely beautiful and energizing. I so wish that I still played the viola when I hear songs like this. This is a time when my music teacher and mother were right: I would end up regreting that I didn't put more into my playing.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw

Finally- Pictures

I finally got pictures put on CD. So here are a ton of them! Our summer has been filled with so many different things. Here is a little of what we have been up to:


Over the summer Evan has become my little scientist. He want to try experiment with something every day. Here he wanted to mix water, salt and food coloring! When nothing happened he put in more colors and then some sugar. Nothing! Then he put it outside to see what heat would do. The great thing about it was that every time there was no reaction, he didn't get frustrated. I hope he keeps up the experiments(to an extent!).



Evan was a trooper and volunteered to help me snap beans. I wanted to freeze them so that we can have fresh beans in the winter. We love crunchy beans! We also froze broccoli and blueberries. Our garden was good to us, as long as we remembered to water him. We had a strawberry almost every morning waiting for us. I was trying it out to see how well they would do, next spring I will have to plant a lot more of those. Natalie and Evan were always trying to get more. My raspberry plant didn't make it, but I forgot to water it for a little while. But the blackberry bush is taking over. Hopefully in the spring we will have some blackberries!!!! I really want to plant in Sept, but not sure what is good to plant in the fall here. If any of you have let me know, otherwise I will be doing some research in that area.


We spent a lot of time swimming. We probably went to our pool 3-4 times a week, plus throw in a water park here and there. I didn't realize until moving to Texas how much I love swimming and being in the water. Zach and Evan loved the slides, as did Dad! And this water park was great, it has water slides for all ages and all fear levels. I was impressed at some of the ones Zach went on. We spent forever there and then we come home and zonked out!

highlight of our summer- Disneyworld!!! Gabriel and I were talking and realized that we have gone probably 4 times, but always quick trips. This time we went and were able to spend some nice quality time at the parks and with his parents. The kids still managed to have more fun splashing in puddles and goofing around. It rained pretty hard 2 days we were there.

We did a late night swim, which the kids thought was great! To them it was like getting away with something! Zach and Evan's highlight was driving the little boats with Grandpa and Dad.

And Natalie's was seeing the characters. She had to give everyone a hug!

Our summer is almost over and I can't believe the end is near. I loved having my kids home this summer. I am not ready for them to start school. I wish I could home school them. It is very tempting at times. School starts on the 25th and I am so sad, but I will have something to fill Nat's and my time --I am starting a preschool out of my home this year. I am very excited and a little nervous. I have always wanted to do this, it has been a dream of mine for years. I just hope I can recruit enough kids to make it work. Wish me luck!!

Pres. Hinckley Quote

Recently I read a book with quotes from Pres. Hinckley and his wife. They were all directed to women and were very comforting. I would love for everyone to hear them, but don't want to overwhelm you with a ton of quotes. So, I will try to post 1 a week and hope that you find comfort and strength as I did in reading them.

My dear sisters, you marvelous women who have chosen the better part, I stand in great admiration for all that you do. I see your hands in everything . . . Many of you are mothers, and that is enough to occupy one’s full time. You are companions – the very best friends your husbands have or ever will have . . . You are nurses. With every illness that comes along, you are the first to be told about it and the first to respond with help. In cases of serious sickness, you are the bedside day and night, comforting, encouraging, ministering, praying.

Mission memory

Part of my mission in Chicago was spanish speaking and I loved it! The people love to give us something when we would leave their houses. One of my fondest memories was when they would give us mangoes. Of course we wouldn't have knives with us to cut them open. So, my companion and I would peel them with our teet and then savor every last bite we could get. I recall the juice just running down our arms and dripping off our elbows. They were so good!

Well, I read a post on a friends blog a while ago about a mango and it brought back this memory. It had me craving a mango, but they are expensive. Then our farmer's market had them on sale 3/$1. I jumped on it! I tried to get my picky eaters to try it. My die hard fruit boy took on the challenge. He was skeptical, but once he took a bite he was hooked. In 1 day we had all 3 eaten. And today at the store he saw them again and he begged me to get more, lucky for him they are still on sale. I picked out 1 and then had a hard time finding another. I thought he was going to break down right there in the store over a mango! Don't worry I found 2 more good ones and all is good. When I tried to calm him down he says, "I don't think I can eat anything else unless I get more of those." What do I do next week when the mangoes aren't on sale?
But I am glad that he enjoys them as much as I do.

Pay It Forward

A few of my fellow bloggers have had this up and I am taking the challenge also. I like how it was worded on one blog "that we can do two things: 1) Find value in homemade again and 2) Send something to people without needed reward."

Here's the deal. The first 5 people to leave a comment here will get a homemade gift from me. The only catch is that you have to pay the gift forward by reposting this on your blog. I will check to make sure you've done so. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be homemade. I'll get it to you sometime soon. I don't promise you'll love it, but I'm not going to make you something I think you'll hate, either, because that would be like an un-gift and defeat the entire purpose.

Let's have some fun.

Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

I can't believe it has been 3 years since this day! This is our little girl and she has been so fun, but a lot more work than my 2 boys.


The day before her birthday we went to the mall and passed this cookie shop. They had this cookie in the window and the kids loved it. How funny that they would have this up right before her birthday! What a nice surprise!


We celebrated her day on Monday, since I was no where close to do it on Sunday. She went with me to one of her favorite places: the dentist. I was due for a cleaning and she wanted hers done again! Then we went and got ice cream to go with her cake and had lunch. The boys went with Gabe to get Natalie something. The boys loved showing her how to open her presents. She loved what they picked out: a princess tent, a barking dog (her pet), and a Diego game. Life is good at the Peterson home!

The "icing on the cake" was her castle cake. She picked this out days ago and couldn't wait for me to make it. She asked everyday if we could make her cake. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it; 1-I didn't have the right size pans & 2-I had 2 anxious boys who wanted to help decorate it. They did the purple tower tops and the flower and vines all over the cake. I love to make a master piece and so as they were deciding where to put the purple tops and the flowers and such I cringed! But I kept reminding myself in 10 years what do I want them to remember from this moment;1-a mom who is extremely picky about where a purple cone is placed or 2-a fun time decorating their sisters cake. I opted for the 2nd. We had fun and I was able to do most of it while she napped!

A perfect ending to a perfect day!