Small Realization

This may seem insignificant to you, but it was a big thing for me.

The other night, after the girls were in bed, Kent and I settled down to watch the new Shrek movie. I expressed that I didn't love the first Shrek, because it was supposed to be a kids movie but had a lot of inappropriate adult humor.

Then I found myself holding my breath and bracing myself for something.

Kent acknowledged what I said and went to watching the movie.

I realized that I had been preparing for criticism. I had been expecting something along the lines of being called a prude and being told I was stupid. This is the reaction I would have been expecting 4 years ago, when I was still married to my ex-husband.

Through the movie, I thought about this. I could not think of a single time that Kent has criticized me. Don't get me wrong, we have had our disagreements, but that is different than cutting someone down. He has never made me feel bad about myself.

I do not often find myself reacting like I did that day, expecting repercussion. But I guess bits of old habits come out every now and then. With Kent, I can express any feeling, thought, or desire openly with him. While he may not always agree, he accepts and loves me just the way I am and is good at showing it.

The difference is monumental. It has made such a world of difference with how I feel inside.

Random Updates

I haven't posted for a long time, so I figured I'd go back through our pictures and post a bit about recent stuff going on at our house.

Camryn's school pictures

Camryn is loving Kindergarten and is doing amazing. She now reads us bedtime stories every night.

Her school has "Spirit Friday" when you are supposed to wear school colors. Their colors are red, white, and blue. They are the Harrison Huskies! The school sells red, white, and blue tie dye t-shirts. We thought we could do a little better than a tie-dye shirt with our money. We bought two blue polo's and embroidered a logo on them. I also made some matching hair bows.

Doesn't she look good! She loves her shirts!

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My mom tells me that I used to love to play with and suck on my toes when I was a baby. I tried, without luck, to find my picture of it. Anyway, although my daughter might not look much like me, part of me is in there somewhere.

I'm such a proud mommy!

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Kent made this delicious apple pie. Proof that he can bake, and actually does it very well. Just don't hold your breath for it to happen again.

It was so yummy!!! It didn't last long!!!

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We made a trip down to Utah to Travis and Nicole's house for Kaydence's 3rd Birthday Party!

These are two of the sweetest things! Even more so when we get them together.

BFF

The men took the kids to the Rec Center while Nicole and I got ready for the party.

Check out my little rock climber. They said she got pretty high up.

They got back just in time for the party.

Nicole went all out. She made tutus and capes for the kids. We played games, made bracelets, and decorated crowns. It was a lot of fun.

Kendra can barely contain her excitement!

Nicole asked for my help making a castle cake. She had the idea to have the kids decorate ice cream cones at the party for the castle.

THE FINAL RESULT

Later on.....

We had such a good time. We did a little shopping, hung out and watched movies, and ate lots of good food. Nicole and Travis are wonderful hosts. We can't wait to come again.

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For Thanksgiving, we went to my mom and dad's house again. Jonathan and Jessica and Nicole and her family also came.

The girls got together again. We get a break at parenting at mom and dad's house. We barely see our kids. They have a room full of fun girl stuff--dresses, and doll houses, and toys.

Mom let the girls paint. Notice the outfits. I think our kids wore real clothes twice over the whole 4 day weekend, once coming in the door when we got there and once going out the door on the way home.

Thanks Mom, for being such a wonderful grandma

...and such a wonderful cook. Mom put on a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Later that night, we got out mom and dad's snow machine.

It was a BLAST

...of cold air in your face. We had a ton of fun.

A bunch of us did Black Friday, and got tons of deals. Kent, Dad, Dane, Nicole, and even Travis were shopping in the middle of the night. They did well. I had to work Friday morning, so I missed the ...fun.

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We are enjoying the Christmas Season and hope you are too!!!

Disclaimer: many of these pictures were stolen from Nicole's blog. I have not been very good at taking pictures lately. That is part of my mom in me (I love you mom=))

Halloween Fun

Kindergerten Field Trip

On Wednesday, I got to go help with the Kindergarten field trip to the Corn Maze.

These four girls were in my group. We explored the maze together (we started with four and ended with six). Camryn and her best friend, Elsie, are in the middle.

We crossed paths with this group.

The girls started to get worried that we would never find our way out, but we finally did. At the end we enjoyed hot chocolate.


Camryn tripped and spilled it all over her pants, and all over another boy's coat.
They kindly gave her some more that she was able to drink.
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Mrs. Jacobson's Class.
Camryn is under the sign right next to Mrs. Jacobson.

We walked to the maze, through the maze, and back to school. The kids were worn out by the end, especially Elsie. She kept trying to stop and lay down. We all made it though. It was a fun trip!

School Halloween Party

I also got to go help with the Halloween Party on Friday. I put on a witch costume to enjoy the festivities.
Mrs. Jacobson dressed up as Wilma. Isn't she adorable?
We have really gotten to like her as a teacher. She is great and we are so happy that Camryn is in her class.

At the party, the kids each got a small pumpkin. There were five stations, and the kids did something different with their pumpkin at each station. At my station, they weighed their pumpkin (and weighed themselves) and stacked unifix cubes to see how tall their pumpkin was. At one station they got to decorate their pumpkins.

The kids got to do the traditional Halloween parade through the other classrooms.

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The also got to eat cupcakes.

That has got to be one scared cupcake.


Class Picture
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Pumpkin Carving

Kent helped the girls pick out a pattern to carve on their pumpkins. There was a feline theme to our Halloween this year. Both girls picked cat patterns.

Kent helped Camryn, but he let her do a lot of the carving herself.

I helped Kendra. Hers had a bit more detail.

Finished product!
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Oh, I forgot to explain the fact that we carved green pumpkins. These are special pumpkins.
We grew these pumpkins. They were the only two pumpkins we got out of our pumpkin plant we planted in the spring. They are green, but they are beautiful!

Instead of carving a pumpkin, Corinne dressed like one.

Ward Halloween Party

On Friday evening, we all got ready for the ward Halloween Party. We had two leopards and one ladybug.

Watch out, or they're gonna eat you up!



This little one just needs to be eaten up!

There was dinner, games, and trick-or-treating to decorated classroom doors.

Each of the kids lined up on stage to announce what they dressed up as.

We have the cutest girls, we know.

We also got to take the kids trick-or-treating door to door. The girls got TONS of candy. Then we went home and had hot chocolate. It was a fun Halloween.

We hope everyone had a

Happy Halloween!!!

Cuteness!

In addition to this, he is corrupting our baby's palate with peach rings.
I feed her squash, he feeds her corn syrup. Instead of throwing too much of a fit, I decided to get the camera.
She is a daddy's girl.

For the Record

I have the BEST HUSBAND EVER!!!!

I get a phone call at work from Kent. He says pants are on sale at the mall. Let's go get you a pair when you get off work.

Which we do.

Then, I come home. He has made Pumpkin Bread Pudding.

Yummy!!!!

Kendra's Birthday Party

The day before the party, Grandma and Grandpa Petersen came up to take Camryn and Kendra camping. They did this last year, and had so much fun that they wanted to do it again. It gives Grandma and Grandma some time with Camryn and Kendra, and gives Kent and me time to finish getting things ready for the party.
Camryn and Kendra were so excited to go.
They brought back pictures.



Grandma told me that Camryn wanted to hike to the top of a pretty big hill. So off they went. It got pretty hard. Grandma asked Camryn if she wanted to go back. Camryn said no. She wanted to go all the way. Camryn had set a goal and was determined to make it. .

They had to take a break halfway.
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Here they are at the top. Grandma and Grandpa said the pictures don't do the hill justice. It was really big.
Grandpa said he couldn't get a good picture of the hill. He had to zoom way in to get them at the top.
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Good job Camryn and Grandma!


Beautiful Kendra Silly Girls

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They even got to do a little swimming.

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I think it is safe to say that they had A LOT of fun!

They came back just in time to get ready for the party.

Dress-Up Birthday Party

Everyone got dressed up. Camryn and Kendra wore their fanciest dresses. I wore one of my dresses from a high school dance, and Kent wore his tux. Grandma and Grandpa dressed up too.

When the guests had arrived, we started decorating boxes to keep their dress-up accessories in.

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After the boxes were done, we ate lunch. Kendra got to pick the food. She picked cheese pizza, butterfly gummy treats, and little candies.



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Everyone ate lots of candy and jello jigglers, but they actually did eat pizza too.
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After lunch, all of the girls got fancied up. ..
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We even put on makeup.
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Lilly was so cute. I told her to close her eyes for eye-shadow. She shut her eyes as tight as possible. I asked her to close them softly. I think she squeezed them even tighter.

All of our beautiful girls are ready to go. From left: Camryn, McKenna, Kadance, Erin, Kendra, and Lilly.

Presents

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Daddy picked out this toy. It is a monkey that spins around the metal bars. All the kids had to take a turn playing with it.

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Grandma Petersen gave Kendra this Furrreal Kitty. Camryn got a similar one for her birthday. They both LOVE their kitties.
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I just had to get a picture of these two beautiful people at the party.

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Cake

We ate cake and icecream, then the girls all played. Soon it was time for the guests to go home.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for all your help. We all love you so much!

I hope you had a great birthday Kendra! I love you SO MUCH!!!!