The Artist

    





         For the last few months McKay has been in an art class.  For any of you who know Mac he's quite creative and loves to draw and create.  It was so fun to go to his art show and see all that he'd been working on.  This is his eagle, his favorite animal. Below are a few others including his pencil sketch and a horizon picture.  Great work Mac! 

Doesn't Get Better Than This....

Seriously!!  Does it get better than babies in Cowboy (or Cowgirl) boots??  I think not.  These particular pair are a bit too big, but they'll do for romping around the house and making the mama smile.  Scottie, this one's for you little brother!! 

Avery licked my pancake this morning...

     What a wonderful Mothers Day I've had, and I'm not being facetious  for any of you who already know what I did this weekend.  Breck had been coughing for a few nights and Saturday morning he was lethargic.  So at lunch time Corey dropped Breck and I off at the doctors office on his way to Classic Skating where Keaton had a birthday party.  Breck's oxygen wasn't good so they put him on oxygen and did a breathing treatment and got a chest x-ray.  The x-ray showed that he had pneumonia.  His breathing looked alright so we left with instructions to come back that night for a check and more treatments. 

     Well, the check didn't go over well and they sent us to Primary Children's.  "Sorry to send you for Mother's Day"  they said, but I couldn't help but think "it's okay, I'm being a Mom and right now, and when Breck is sick enough to go to the hospital there is nowhere else I'd rather be."  So I spent Sunday and Monday holding and cuddling Breck while he got better.  Despite the worry that comes with illness it was great to spend time just me and him.  I held him almost the whole time and enjoyed him. 

     Corey came up with his Dad on Sunday to give Brecken a blessing.  He also brought a mothers day gift which included the book "I am a Mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson.  It's a wonderfully powerful book about her decisions about motherhood and other inspirational thoughts on the importance of motherhood.  I'd highly recommend it.  For me it's easy to know in my head that what I'm doing is important and worthwhile, but to feel of that importance is harder and quite honestly I haven't felt it for a while. 

     The combination of my weekend and this wonderful book and moments of quiet contemplation helped me feel the immense value of what I'm doing as a mother.  The best part is that I've realized it's the tedious day to day things that are so important.  You think "anyone can scrub a toilet and vacuum," but it's you who actually does, and not once or twice but day after day after day....it's enduring love expressed in housework along with every other thing you do, cook, play, listen and spend time.  

     When we got home my Mom came and we had a great "Mothers Day"  visit. She brought me a book as well called "Bedtime and Naptime and Bedtime and Naptime" by Hilary Weeks.  This was another one I'd recommend.  It's absolutely hilarious but also ties in the deeply spiritual importance of motherhood. 
     I hope you all felt it last weekend, and if you didn't I hope you will.  I really believe that when we truly realize and feel the value in what we're doing as mothers is when we'll be the mothers our children need us to be, the mothers our Heavenly Father knows we can be. 
     So to my Mom: thanks Mom for cleaning and cooking and bringing me saltines and sprite when I was sick.  Thank you for teaching me that motherhood is important and valuable work.  For teaching me that the most important place I could be is home with my kids, and for Mothering me still as a friend, confidant and cheerleader.  I love you. 
     To all my other Mother friends and family I hope you'll find the joy and feel of the importance in your mothering, just like I did this morning when Avery licked the syrup off of my pancake. 

Twin Takes

Here are a bunch of pictures I wanted to share, so this is what the babies are into lately!

Yeah, that's sharpie.  They've done this TWICE!



I honestly don't remember what she got into....yogurt, vaseline???



Beep beep!

This is the babies favorite game in action.  Want to play?  Here's how...
Grab something, anything with a handle (note Breck is carrying the baby
doll crib by the mobile).  Or, if you can't find anything like that put something
on like shoes, or a hat, or a jacket...endless possibilities.  Then proceed to give
everyone kisses and say "bye bye."  Go to the front door and stand there
for about 30 seconds (mostly because the door is locked and you can't open
it anyways).  Repeat as desired. 



Now that's a great drive!



All dressed up and ready to go!

Oh wait!  These two aren't twins, but plenty of people ask if they are!
Keaton and Tate enjoying Easter treats.

Getting tips from Tate for enjoying Spring weather.

I made the mistake of letting the babies unwrap the butter once. 
It is now THEIR JOB.  Any time I pull it out of the fridge they come running. 
Heavan help me if I need less than a cup!



Hiding from Mom before jammie time.




Sweet baby with her baby.



Joyce's Pie Crust

    

     I got this recipe from a food group in my ward.  I haven't been able to go the past few months and my sweet friend Brittany was kind enough to bring me the recipes and a plate of different pies the last time they met.  When I got the recipe for pie crust I thought to myself  "why would you put egg in a pie crust when you can make a perfectly good one out of flour, salt, water, and shortening?"  
      It must have plagued my thoughts a bit, because a few weeks ago I was making dinner for a friend who had just had a baby.   I was making chicken pot pie and wanted it to be special to celebrate their new arrival.  I did it.  I made the new pie crust and can I tell you....WOW!  It's light, flaky, buttery, scrumptious and even puffs a bit as it bakes.  Try it, you'll love it! You'll be so proud of yourself that you'll volunteer to make three pies totally from scratch for your next family get together...whew! 

Joyce's Pie Crust

2 1/4 C. flour

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 C. shortening

3 TB butter

1/3 C. + 1 TB ice water

1 egg white

Combine flour and salt with shortening and butter until it forms small particles (pea-sized).  Beat water and egg-white until foamy.  Stir into flour with fork.   Roll onto a flour-covered board. 

Easter In Scipio

        Ever since I can remember we've gone down to Scipio for the town's Easter Egg Hunt. Scipio is the small farming community where my Grandma and Grandpa Peterson grew up.   It's funny to think that such a simple place could hold so much magic for me as a child and I still love the feeling I get when I'm there.  So, naturally, I now take my kids there every year and they look forward to it as much as I did. 
        That being said, this is a Peterson family tradition and Corey sometimes has a hard time understanding the whole thing.  It is generally pretty darn cold and we go up to "The Grove" and roast hot dogs and burgers and hang out in the little house that my Grandma grew up in.  So as we drove into Scipio with the snow beginning to fall Corey burst into song...."I don't know why we have to go....so we can be cold in Scipi-O, just so we can all freeze....it'll make us all have to sneeze....." I wish I could remember all of the words, but you get the point.  Nevertheless, he was a good sport and we had a fun day in spite of the weather. 





On the hunt!





 



Adam and Hayley and their sweet baby Wyatt.....you look so warm Scottie! 

Corey's way of making this tradition "his."  Riding partway home on his bike.  Way to go babe!!

Happy Easter!

Hill Aerospace Museum

This past week was spring break for my kids.  We wanted to do something fun, go somewhere...warm, like St. George, but with all the birthday celebrating and Easter plans it just didn't happen.  To make up for a non-trip Corey suggested we take the kids to the Hill Aerospace Museum. It's in Roy, Utah which is just a few miles south of Ogden, so it's a bit of a drive, but totally worth it, and the museum is free although they gladly take donations.  
When you drive in you're surrounded by huge airplanes.  They're right there on the grounds and there are a lot of them.  The museum itself is made up of two big buildings full of old and new planes with videos and plaques to tell you all about them.  It was so fun watching my kids run from plane to plane, in awe of it all while Corey and I followed behind, him showing me all of his old favorites and which one's he and his brother made models of when they were little. 
There was even a "kid's museum" within the big one that was geared to kids, they could touch everything and there were volunteers there to teach them about airplanes and physics.   They got dressed up in costumes and pretended to fly airplanes in old simulators. 

One of my favorite parts was an exhibit on  "WASP" or "Women's Air force Service Pilots."   They were an amazing group of women who flew combat planes in WWII.  They didn't actually fly in combat, but did a lot of other really important things like test-pilot aircraft, and take supplies into men on the front line.  The story I liked best about them is when Boeing made the B29 bomber their head test pilot was killed on the first run of it.  That didn't sit well with any of the other pilots and no one would fly it.  The engineer was getting frustrated because he knew we needed that plane in the war effort so he took two of the WASP women and taught them how to fly it.  He spoke so highly of them and their willingness to help and about how capable they were.  Then they took a group of men and brought them out to look at the airplane and there were those two women suited up and ready to go.  One of the men asked.."what's this here?" referring to the women and the engineer replied "these are the two women that are going to teach you how to fly this plane."  Of course they all went and the war was greatly impacted by the use of the B29 bomber. Such amazing and inspirational women. 

For any of you who haven't gone, I would highly recommend it.  It was amazing.