Girls Night Out

I wish I had more photos to post, but the curse of the dead battery follows me everywhere. Lilly and I had a very special night out to see the Moscow Circus at the Wells Fargo Center this week(notice LIlly holding the tickets in her hand).

**SIDE NOTE It's funny because when we got home and the kids were upstairs dreaming, Todd and I compared notes of our evenings and we kept going back to the idea of how much the kids enjoyed having one on one time with us. Lilly and Drew just know that they have our undivided attention and what a special feeling it must be for them. Anyway...Todd and Drew played crash game and tickle monster all night. But this is about the girls night out.

Well, Lilly was captivated for the first solid 40 minutes...where the entire 40 minutes she had her hands covering her ears and she was yelling things like, "this music is really really loud" The only time she would take her hands down from her ears was to clap when the rest of the audience clapped. She was a very exuberant clapper.

Lilly's quotes were worth the price of admission. Many chuckles around Lilly that night. Just to highlight some quotes:

Please take into consideration that all of these quotes were loudly spoken and could be heard in a diameter of 5 people in front and to the side of us easily

"Good Job Girl!!!," when a small (long-haired, but small bodied) male russian acrobat was performing. Followed by whole body clapping.

" Oops...I just toot. Peee uwwwww Mommy. Stinky." followed by an excuse me at the top of her lungs

"I have to go poo-poo Mommy" followed by an immediate exit

"She has One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eighteen, hoola hoops on the body..WOW...WOW"

"I really really hungry...really really. I like, I like, I like PIZZA." then proceeding to turn around to face her neighbor in the row behind us and ask for some cheese.


There were more that I am forgetting, but those made the people sitting in row J get a giggle. We did get to go out to ice cream and Lilly slammed down an an adult scoop in 2 minutes 36 seconds flat without ever getting brain freeze(and least she did not lead on that she did)

Making her mommy proud.

I look forward to many more girls night out with my Lilly. I love my Lilly.

Boom Boom Pow

I got some beyond good laughs this night. What happens when dance and gymnastics meet? Umm, Boom Boom Pow.

As I walk out the door to my dance class these days, Drew says, "Mommy going to do some Boom Boom Pow tonight. Daddy"

Sounds kind of criminal if you ask me.

PS I think Lilly might be saying, "YAAAAA, DO IT" at the end when Drew gets a little frisky, which is even more comical to me

One of my favorite parts to my day

I am not bragging, but.....

She has some serious skills. The accuracy, my goodness. It's not like she is right under the basket either.






I think Drew might have been playing more of of a dodge ball basketball game if you ask me. Inventive.....

When you can't find socks

Use the next best thing....like something that goes on your hands to keep them warm.




Lilly's problem solving skills have sky-rocketed these past few months. Nobel Peace prize here we come. Hey..if Obama got it, why not Lilly?

PS Santa....

Thank you for my special delivery.




Todd was wondering though if the hot tub was mistakenly dropped off at another house, because we never got it here...on our back deck.....like his letter requested.

Maybe next year?

Thanks again Santa!!

Life imitating Art

I do love how Lilly and Drew are getting older and drawing things.. Real ideas and concepts.

This was a let's draw a face on our magna-doodle day.( I tried to rotate this and it will not upload correctly, sorry)

Drew's attempt at a face


Lilly's attempt at a face.
*please note the one line for eye brows


*art imitating life(you should probably click on this picture of Lilly to magnify the uni-brow)

I wonder if we will be having spa days in third or fourth grade? hmmmmmmmm.

When your kids use your words against you.

I have to be honest. What I am about to write is so frustrating at times, but in the same breath, makes me break out into a giggle.

Conversation between Drew versus myself/Todd:

Todd: "Drew...I said no. No throwing your cars off the stairs to crash on Lilly. That is not a safe or a nice thing to do. If that hits Lilly, it will make her sad"

Drew: (starting to cry) "No Daddy, don't tell me NO. That makes me sad."(more crying after that very dramatic statement)

Me: "Drew..please stop tackling your sister on the tile floor. She is trying to play with you right now, not trying to take Chic away. Look, she is crying and upset. That hurt Lilly's feelings."

Drew: (really whooping it up) "Don't tell me to stop it mommy. That makes my feelings hurt when you say this at me." (insert lots of over the top crying here)



Where did we go wrong?

From the eye(and camera) of a three year old

What beautiful photographs were in Lilly's camera?

Some abstract and detail shots of our home....


She went for a complicated movement shot in the car....


Lots of her crazy Uncle Mattie....I think we will get this one enlarged on a 16x20 canvas. Just gorgeous!


Centered him this time, so that's an improvement....


You know girls and their fascination with shoes...


Actually a decent shot of Drew....



What was discovered in Drew's camera you ask?

A crotch shot of Todd....


Super flattering picture of me....


And chick(from cars) from every imaginable angle....this is not even all of the them. I spared you from all 83 of them.







Not quite sure how he took this one? Maybe he is super flexible or Drew already knows how to work a tripod?

Christmas 2009 in 2010

Has this post lost all relevance due to the date? What a slacker I am these days.


Well, I first want to say Merry late Christmas to everyone who is a Petersen Blog reader. Remember our Christmas last year? So with having a moment to ponder on the puke, we were happy that we could just say Merry snotty Christmas to everyone this year. I will take cold any day over puke...agreed? Agreed.

Lilly started off Christmas Eve with decorating herself. I have a sinking suspicion that my brother had something to do with this though.


Enjoying seeing the night through a video camera on Auntie Doe Doe's back. Ohh, Todd and I get the worst parents of the year award because about two minutes into taping the Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve...."TAPE ENDED" flashes on our video camera. So no footage(that we own the copy rights too) was documented by us on either day. I could have sworn WALMART was open on Christmas day(maybe I was being too optimistic there) but no such luck to buy new tapes for recording.


Have we not all been caught on film looking like this before? I love this picture.


I equally love this shot of Drew. What pure and true happiness as he rips back the paper to his....to be revealed later in this post.


Laugh all you want...but this gift was one of the favorites for Lilly this year. Check it out. You think I would be happy about this, right?


I just wish that vacuum had some real suction power and I would be even happier.


Seriously..hard at work. Loves this cleaning set. She sleeps with the duster and broom on certain days, okay?


So much wonderful gifts to open!!


Lilly wanted to sit on Matti's lap to open his gift to her.


And......Matti helped us get ready for our trip to Disneyland one of these years. I mean, who does not like a Mickey mouse suitcase with rollers? Inside was a travel pillow, blanket, and flashlight. So maybe more of a camping gift, but I do not plan on telling Lilly and Drew about camping any time soon. Translation, "I don't like to camp"



You think Drew has enough McQueen accessories?


Which brings us to Christmas morning


While Lilly was sleeping in that morning, Drew was happy to set up (with Todd of course) his Lightening McQueen remote control track.


Lilly and Drew were so adorable that morning. Drew was ready to dive in and Lilly wanted to wait and watch.


So excited..look at her face.



What is with kids and marble mazes? They could do this for days.



We spent the late afternoon on Christmas day with the Petersen side and had a great time. And thanks to Nana and Boppa, Lilly and Drew are the proud new owner's of-

Seriously....they LOVE these cameras. There will be another post just dedicated to what pictures have been taken by my kids in the not too distant future.

The four cousins.....Such a cute shot, but Drew was really not feeling well that day, so he was more worried about the snot running from his nose and constant stream of tears from his watery eyes.


We are so thankful and blessed by our Christmas of 2009

(but being recapped in the New Year of 2010. What happened to being an over achiever...has that been lost in the New Year already?)

Would you call him a mentor?

So my very lovable brother comes to town around the holidays and Lilly and Drew absolutely adore him and his every move. I would hear constantly, "Where did Matti go?" when he walked out of the room for a minute or "Matti come with me"(as Lilly goes to poop on the potty)They don't want to let him out of their sight when he is in town. To see what he taught the children when he came to town last...click here

So my brother, who is inherently a mentor(maybe more like a bad influence at times)really wanted to impart some fire danger wisdom onto my children with this last visit.

So he did many drills of STOP...DROP...and ROLL. At any time in any given part of the day, if he yelled "FIRE" this is what Drew and Lilly would do.







All you need is love, love, love..love is all you need :-)

Thanks for watching out for their safety Matthew. Your sister appreciates all the lessons you teach them.

Twas over a week after Christmas....

....and all through my house, you can barely navigate through all the toys and mess, not even the smallest of creatures could do it, not even a mouse.

Yes. I am slacker on the Christmas post. I know(insert long sigh here).

Maybe my New Years Goal should be to blog about Christmas....I actually sat down and dedicated quite a bit of time to it yesterday and then some how deleted it and could not recover it.

I will, I will, I will do it eventually.