Happy Hallween 2010

I kept finding myself frustrated with Halloween because I wanted us all done up and dressed and ready....but it wasn't really that way this year. Probably due to the fact we celebrated Halloween on Monday, (Watkins' Party,) then Friday (church Social,) then Sat. (friends party!) My kids were sick of dressing up and it was "too hot!" So I decided to be that mom who's kids didn't dress up (only for minutes at a time) and just enjoy the holiday...(What are we celebrating anyway?) It was a fun week. And tonight was really Halloween and we just handed out candy and there were no fights about getting in the costume. Memories I don't want to forget: Pumpkin Carving with the Foate family. Spencer saying Happy Halloween ....sounds like ""weeeeeeen" and my Hottie as Justin Bieber!!!

Annual Watkins' Halloween Social!

This is something that we do every year at Grandma and Grandpa Watkins' house:

Halloween Party!

We all look forward to it and I really appreciate all the work that goes into it. Once again the Chili dogs were superb and the entertainment was top notch :)

It really is fun. This is my second time doing a pumpkin Pinata...very cool I must say so myself. Donuts on a string.

Kids in costumes.

Our family:

Date night!

Jake was asked to be a DJ and a friends wedding! Here we are on top of some Museum in Mesa. It was such a fun time and a beautiful night. I like Jake's co-workers....good times!

Thanks Tonya for watching the kids for us.

By the way....Jake was an awesome DJ. He should follow his Dad's lead and start up a business :)

Jake had a Birthday...

Shout HOORAY!!!

Jake turned 31 yesterday. I felt like his Birthday sucked, but that was my point of view. Don't get me wrong. I tried. There was a clean house and dinner...a few presents too. But the night just seemed to fly by with homework, dinner and time with the kids...I guess that is how it is as an adult. Here we are eating Key Lime Pie; a Jake favorite. Gosh, I sure love this guy. And I am sitting here thinking...he sure gave me cute babies too!

So most of Jake's evening was focused on Aubrey. She is in Girl Scouts and LOVING it. Anyway, she sold a bunch of "fall product" ie. nuts and stuff and Wed. night she got it and was so excited she wanted to deliver it all. So that is what we did too. We are so PROUD Of her though. She was the TOP SELLER in her troop and as of today, she has collected and counted all of her money. Aubrey takes being a member of Troop 1569 very seriously!

Fondue!

Just something we did for fun the other night. It was Jake's idea and it was so much fun to try to explain to our children as we rode around our family bike rides. Fondue is something that happened sometimes at the Peterson household and it just brought back great memories. Our kids were in HEAVEN~
It was messy but so delish! Seriously. We downed what you see on the plate, plus an apple and banana in no time FLAT. Thought if I blogged about it...maybe I would remember to do this again. Weston said to his dad as we were eating:
"This is the BEST day of MY LIFE!!!!"

Who doesn't want to be Princess?

Well out of all the Disney Princess's; I probably thought of Snow White as the worst one. ( I knew I had fair skin and a high voice...but she still wasn't my ideal.)But you know what....I will take it. I liked being a Princess for a few hours.

Weston thought I was "beautiful" and kept saying "momma pretty," " I love mommy!" Adding to that, I got to prance around and sing a high pitched song, talk about my idea of fun.
This is my Halloween outfit to a Bunco party by the way.

WEIGHT

One of my pet peeves is skinny people complaining about their weight. Hopefully this isn't annoying to anyone. Weight: So I had written a long boring account of my feeling about my weight. The struggle to lose it and feel good about myself. I however was interrupted by Aubrey and didn't post it.... Now looking at it, I realize, that I really was quite over dramatic and it had too many boring details. Plus, I don't want to send all that negativity out into the UNIVERSE! Not to mention...it really is quite self centered to spend so much time dwelling on.

So ladies I will spare ya the blog. Let's just say I have recently gained 5lbs and I realize that isn't or shouldn't be a big deal; however I worked really hard to lose it...so I am sad and disappointed.

BUT, and this is a BIG BUT! (no pun intended )

I am not going to have a pity party. I know that I am healthy and I look good. So today I will be grateful for the weight I am and I will do what I need to to lose the few lbs I have gained. I will post back here when I have achieved my goal so that I am held accountable. I am starting today (even though I have a ladies bunko night and that is not easy.)

So if anyone has any advice on how they not only lose weight but keep it off...I would love to hear about it. We all need to support each other right?!

p.s. It was hard for me to delete what I wrote...I think I am actually quite self centered.

Aubrey's b-day continued...

So of course Aubrey's birthday kind of continued through out the weekend. First I just had to show you the cute plate we made at "As You Wish!" I did the drawing and writing, but Aubrey did all the painting herself.

Next on Monday night we took Aubrey and the whole family out to dinner at another Thai restaurant. We just can't enough. Look how cute Spencer looks in this picture...he is growing up so fast, I can't STAND it!
Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to have cake. The surprise was that it wasn't just Grandma and Grandpa...it was the whole Watkins' gang! Aubrey really wanted surprised this year and it worked out great. Thanks Grandma for all your hard work. They had crafts, ice cream cake and presents.

Aubrey got the present she has been dreaming of for a while now.... a pillow pet! She loves it!

Here is a picture of all the cousins on the Watkins' side. Weston, Maya, (holding Sophie), Aubrey, Max, Cicily and of course Spencer. It was the perfect night and I am grateful to be close to family to share in things like this.

Aubrey Jean turns seven!!

You might need to click on this picture to read it...but it is so cute! Little Aubrey, well, should I say medium sized Aubrey now... wrote us this note and woke us up bright and early on her birthday. However, because she went downstairs and got the paper in our computer room...she also saw her unwrapped birthday present...(we found this out at breakfast.) Anyhow, the day started off good. Daddy made her the breakfast of champions, exactly what Aubrey ordered: bacon, and hash browns with sausage and orange juice. After breakfast Aubrey got her surprise Littlest pet shop toy...then not quite a surprise bike. HOWEVER! the bike was too big and Aubrey decided she didn't want it. So we returned the bike by 9am and were off for the rest of the day. Aubrey had chosen previously that we were going to "As You Wish." We have been there once before on a mother daughter date and she loved it. So us GIRLS got to go paint a beautiful pottery plate. It really was fun! Then we all went to Sam's club for a cheap lunch and hoping to find a toy to replace the bicycle mishap. We thought we would get her a shuffle ipod because she loves music. But after realizing that she can't really chose what song to listen to, I knew she would be disappointed. Speaking of disappointed....that is how Jake and I were feeling. It was only noon and things weren't quite going as planned. I really was worried we wouldn't find anything of worth for Aubrey on our budget...
Anyway,we decided to go and let Spencer nap at Grandma and Grandpa Watkins' house while Jake took the other two in search of something for Aubrey! Well, thanks to some great CLEARANCE she found the perfect gifts for herself. Aubrey loves to plan her own parties...so she didn't mind a bit. She got an electric keyboard/piano! I can hear her playing now. She also got a Junie b. Jones book and a few other small things. All of which cost the same as the bike. The day ended perfectly with Pei Wei and time to set up the keyboard and play as a family!

Taking cupcakes and visiting Aubrey's school!Reading Junie B. Jones book!

Weston doing HIP HOP

Crazy Hair day!

Not much to say...it was Crazy Hair day at school last week. Aubrey looked like a "Who" from "Whoville" to me!

Happenings lately

So life is still going on here at our house. Aubrey has joined Girl Scouts and already earned a couple badges. Lots of fun!! It was great to see her on her first day out selling nuts and things for a fundraiser. So cute!

Weston spends a lot of his day watching "iCarly" and other parts of the day wrestling with Spencer, building forts and things and going to the park as often as possible. Here is a skate board jump he created with my help.

And I need a family pic of this...but here is Jake pulling baby Spencer on my NEW bike. So exciting. Jake and I decided to both get bikes when we ended our lease on the Subaru. In fact, Jake has been riding the bus and bike for almost 2 weeks now. The best part has been the almost daily family bike rides we have been having. We have gone to lots of different parks, Fry's and Walmart. It really has been so much fun to see everyone having fun together!