Advertising for Michelle!!!

Okay, for those of you who don't know it, our sister-in-law Michelle is like the best photographer ever. She can even make me look cute! ;)

Seriously, she does a really good job. The feet picture above is hers as well many other photos sprinkled throughout our blogs and anywhere else you find us online. Check out the album "Marci's Girls" on Marci's facebook page. Michelle took all of them!!!

I even had her tackle this humongous task for me of taking pictures of all the Peterson kids and their families so I could scrapbook the pictures for Mom and Dad's Christmas present. The pictures turned out great and the scrapbook was pretty good too, if I do say so myself. I will have to get some pics of it and post them so you can see my genius!

Back on topic. . .focus! No pun intended but it works! My thoughts are allover the place today.

Anywho, Michelle is one of the best. If you live here in the Inland Empire or will be visiting make sure to give her a call to set up your photo shoot! She's so good and really reasonably priced. You will get a killer deal!!!!

Just click on the button the top right of the page. The cutest button in the world because I, Marci Ann Peterson, figured out how to make it. And it only took me a couple of minutes! Yay, me! Okay so Ryan, another awesomely talented family member, designed the logo for Michelle but I put it all together in the button.

If me and my ramblings haven't convinced you yet go check out her website (just click on the button) and take a peak at the great stuff she can do with a camera!

Mommy/Daughter Date

So, this is a followup to the Daddy/Daughter Date post that Erik made. As Erik said we are taking the time one night a month to spit up and spend quality on on one time with a girl. This month Erik and Mia had fun at the art museum, read the next post to hear all about it.

And Emma and I rented a Wii game from blockbuster. I asked Emma what she wanted to do and she decided that she wanted to play Wii. She gets to play Wii a lot with Erik and with Mia but I don't play it a lot. And honestly Erik and Mia have been hogging Wii time playing Lego Batman, but the game is finally beat so maybe they will share better now. We love you guys just the same, even if you do have trouble sharing! ;) Part of the problem might be that Emma and I have less of an attention span than they do. They can spend hours, and I do mean hours, playing the same level over and over getting all the "stuff" and unlocking all the "stuff" and finding all the secrets. Emma and I get bored way too easily!

Anyway, back to the date. We, Emma and I went to blockbuster and I told her that she could pick out any Wii game in the store to rent. If she wanted to buy one it had to be under $15, I know I'm a big spender! ;) Hey we are trying to save for a house people, so give me a little bit of a break! Well, there was like only one game there for sale that was in our price range and Emma was so not into that game. So, we looked for games to rent.

And Emma chose De Blob! I had never heard of it, but Emma had seen a commercial fro it on TV. So, we rented it and brought it home. It was actually really fun. There are challenges and levels to complete and secret "stuff," one could get totally hooked. I was kind of addicted to it and had to limit how much time I was going to allow myself to play on it. Good news, it goes back Tuesday--bad news, I looked on half.com to see if anyone had a cheaper copy of it. I am so not paying $40 for a used copy! But I might pay $20. . . .

Thanks for the fun date Emma!!!

First Daddy/Daughter Date

So Marci and I decided that this year, we'd do parent dates--one month, Mia would go with me and Emma would go with her, and then we'd switch the next month.

This month, Mia and I went to Cal State San Bernardino's art museum, where they had a great display called Excavating Egypt. Sure, they had lots of cool stuff like mummy cases and ancient masks, but leave it to Daddy to take a picture of the 6,000 year old rat trap:



In another section, they also had some really cute, really tiny paintings that either weren't put up yet, or were displayed in a rather odd way (with these college art types, you never know).



Afterwards, we headed to the college library, which, since they educate a lot of future teachers there, has an extensive juvenile collection. Those fit me fine, and Mia found some good books too.

Bake Sale!!!

The girls decided that they needed to earn some money. I guess the $1 they get for the allowance just wasn't enough! Anyway, so I asked them what they suggested. Their first option was that we raise their allowance. Not going to happen anytime soon, sweeties so back to the drawing board.

After much thinking they come with the idea to sell something. Great idea but what? They thought about going through their toys and clothes and sell what they have outgrown or don't play with anymore. They decided that they probably couldn't get much for their old toys and clothes and besides they love giving their old stuff to their cousins and to charity.


More thinking! Then they came up with a great idea. You see once a month at the homeschool park day they have what they call "market day" where you can sell old things, or new things. Things you've made, anything you can come with as long as it's legal. So they came to me and said in their sweetest voices and batting their eyelashes ever so cutely. "Mommy, can we make cookies and brownies to sell at the park? Because you make the best cookies ever!" They really are smart little cookies.

So, we made cookies and brownies. They did help but you know how that goes! We got to the park laden with containers full of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Snickerdoodles, and Double Chocolate Brownies (brownies with chocolate chips). They were sold 1 for $.25 or 6 for $1. Well, we sold every single one, each girl made out with about $12 and mommy got hugs!

Making their sign for the bake sale!

Mia putting the butter in

Mia adding the sugar

Emma adding an egg


Emma mixing it all together!

And if I would have remembered to take my camera to the park I would have gotten pictures of them selling the cookies. I think I did good getting us all there as well as all the baked goods and a table and a couple chairs and. . . you get the picture!

Emma Gets A Visit From The Tooth Fairy!

For those of you who know Emma, you know that she has been waiting very impatiently for her tooth to fall out so the tooth fairy could visit her. Well, we need not wait any longer!!! Her tooth is out and the tooth fairy has paid her visit!

Do you think that she is excited?

Fun In The Snow!!!

All Erik asked for for Christmas was a book on places to hike in Southern California. I ended up getting him two books as well as a couple other things. Anyway, there is a really cute and easy hike one of the books up in Crestline. (Which is just up the mountain from us)

So, we decided that we would venture up to Crestline to take this hike. When we were getting ready to leave I told the girls to grab a jacket, knowing that the mountains are always a little cooler than we are down here. They both came out with their winter coats, I almost told them to take them back and just get a light jacket/sweatshirt. We have been having really warm weather down here and I assumed that most of the snow in Crestline would be melted. I was actually hoping that we would be able to find a couple patches of snow for the girls.


I was wrong! There is still a ton of snow up in the mountains!!!! So, our nice leisurely hike turned into playing in the snow. We will have to save the hike for a warmer day. We were not prepared to play in the snow, the girly girls have decreed that we need to go back with gloves so they can make more snowballs to throw at mom and dad!

Girls having fun in the snow!!

Mia walking in the snow.

Emma in the snow

Girls sitting in the snow! Brrrr, cold!!!

Erik and the girly-girls on a rock high above the creek!