Grandma and Grandpa's helpers

Braden helping Grandpa brush the burnt stuff off of picture frames

Gotta wear those safety glasses

Ashton modeling the safety glasses

Braden helping clean the church with Bro. Fergus. Braden 5yrs old, Bro Fergus 92 years old.

Keeping Fit

Kelly mounting her excercise bikeMan this is akward
Getting comfortable for a long ride

Working the left leg real hard.

Wow! Now I feel a lot better.

So yeah . . .

If you've seen my latest blog, you've seen the website I found where you can morph faces into different things. I decided to put Mom and Kelly through the ringer, and here are a few results:

Black Mom:


Masculine Mom:



Ape Kelly:


Masculine Kelly:

Kelly, all I can say is . . . you are NOT an attractive man.

Albany Democrat Herald

We had an interesting chain of events here this last week. A couple of the town druggies apparently got into some kind of fight and the police thought that the one killed the other one. They must have had some kind of witness. Anyway they had both of their pictures in the paper. Dustin said they were both a waste of good oxygen. Anyway, they couldn't find the body of the dead guy. My friend, Ilynn's husband is a contracter and the police went through his dumpser looking for the body. This was the headline in the paper the following night:

HOMOCIDE VICTIM MAY NOT BE DEAD.

I then wondered, how you can be a homocide victim if you're not dead!
Today was Eric McKirdy's 4th annual Christmas concert. It was AWESOME. I hope he stays here forever. Dustin and Kaysha cut and put up our tree. Thanks so much. See you all soon. Love MOM

Cody continues to crack me up!!

This is how I found cody sleeping this fine morning at 6:45. Right between Dustin and I. So Dustin and I just laughed, and I ran to get the camera. I have thought he possible wanders the night. I guess this proves it. He found goggles somewhere to wear to bed. Try it sometimes!!! It was obviously comfortable enough to fall back asleep.

thanksgiving john deere style

Fun in the Bathrooms

As most of you know, our house has been in need of a little fixing up. We got a few things done this summer, but to be honest, we were a little scared to tackle the bathroom with its Italian bumps and peeling lineoleum. (Who knew what kind of water damage was under there?) Anyway, Garrick did a great job of sanding down the bumps on the walls. (That was a HUGE mess - white powder everywhere, even downstairs!)

I decided to surpise him and while he was in Las Vegas for school one weekend, I painted the bathroom walls. I picked out what I thought was a nice, green color. But, since neither one of us plans on joining the military anytime soon, we decided that it needs to go, and I have banned myself from picking out paint without the aid of at least one other person. Luckily I didn't ever finish the paint job. We'll pick a new color and start over later.

Anyway, we recently met a guy that does tile work, and he came in and fixed our upstairs bathroom floor. (See photo). It looks MUCH better (and isn't soft and squishy over by the shower).




We decided to have him replace the lineoleum downstairs with the same tile. But, after tearing up the floor, he discovered that we have a leak in the pan underneath our shower. This means that he needs to take off the shower tile, fix the pan, and then replace the tile. Because of these unexpected, additional costs, we decided that it might be more economical to combine the shower/toilet experience (see picture). Stephen commented that this could really save some time, too. We'll let you know how it goes.




We do have a "BEFORE" picture of downstairs. We'll update you later with an "AFTER" picture (hopefully not too much later).




- Deyce & Garrick

Here is a picture with bradens new suit! He is pretty proud of it. Also just a cute picture of cody dustin took.

Carving

Don't you love Braden's smile when you tell him to look at the camera and smile. They carved some big pumpkins this year. Braden had the cleanest pumpkin I have ever seen. He got really into cleaning it out and scraping all the gunk out. It was a fun day@!!

Trick or Treat

Here are the boys Halloween costumes. Cody was an alligator at preschool, and doctor by night. Braden is Dash from the incredibles. Ashton is not robin hood so don't ask he got very upset when people asked him if he was robin hood trick or treating. He is peter pan!!! They had fun. Thanks to mom who went with us and brought cody home when he said "cody all done" a few times.

A Sister's Day at the Beach

It wouldn't be a day at the beach without "The Chowder Bowl" (newly remodeled)

You can barely see the sea lions but they were hilarious. You could hear them from clear down the street. Maybe they are noisier in the morning.

I love these seagulls lined up on the posts. They look like statues

NOVEMBER IN NEWPORT

No words for this.

Ah, Lola

Debt Management

Happy Day

Today is a happy day for the Petersons. We no longer have to travel to Las Vegas, Hawaii, or Portland to visit one of our favorite restaurants. Yes, the Cheesecake Factory has opened in Murray, UT. How fortunate is that! I am sure we'll have to come up with some excuses to go to SLC and stop by for dinner or dessert. I can't wait!
- Deyce

they may be on to something???

So I was at moms yesterday morning cleaning house. Dad woke up got a bite to eat and headed to the garage. It was a chilly morning. I peaked out in the garage as dad is settling in with a nice newspaper blanket in the recliner! To this day it still makes me laugh. Well maybe they are on to something because cody thinks its a good idea too!

Get Educated, Now!

First of all I forgot to mention, this is Stephen! :-)

Folks, elections are coming up in just a year. Believe it or not, your voice matters more now than ever before. I don't know how well our family does on keeping up on the news, but in case you've missed it, the US is about to go to war with Iran. The leading Republican nominees are pro war, pro torture, and anti-civil liberties.

Did you know that thanks to the patriot act you can now be arrested without charges, and detained for up to 31 days without charges being brought against you? You may even be tortured! Our civil liberties have been eroding over the last 6 years, while the Presidential powers have increased.

Nearly all major candidates for president plan to stay in Iraq for 10+ years in one form or another. Our national spending is out of control and our foreign policy is a mess. A war with Iran could very well mean a draft, and it would certainly mean thousands and thousands more deaths.

Ron Paul is the only anti-war candidate running for president. He is for returning civil liberties to the people, not increasing presidential powers. He is anti torture, and anti taxes. What he says makes sense, and he is gaining a lot of momentum in the polls and with the American people. Please watch some of the following video clips and do everything you can to support Ron Paul if you agree that our country is headed in the wrong direction:









www.ronpaul2008.com

One more thing, Ron Paul gets more donations from members of the military than any other candidate running for president. Maybe the best way to support the troops is to get them out harms way.

The Latest

Last weekend Britten, Eric and I headed down to Southern Oregon for yet another adventure. This is actually a picture of us in the Oregon Caves (which are pretty spectaular if you've never been). The picture doesn't do the caves justice, but it's a good picture of me. We stayed in a tee-pee the first night and then camped under the stars the second night. I'm afraid it might have been our last camping trip for a little while. The rains started this week and who knows when they'll let up.

I was just organizing my pictures and I came across this one from the summer. Maybe you've driven past this shoe filled tree coming and going from Utah. Britten and I stopped to admire it for a short moment. Where did that boot come from? That's wierd!

Messin' with photoshop

Hey everyone, i've been messing around with photoshop lately, trying to learn how it works. The kids and I took some outdoor pics yesterday and this is one that I played around with a bit. I think it turned out pretty good. today was Jacobs first day of preschool. He was so excited. He had his clothes all layed out last night and kept complaining that he couldn't fall asleep. His class has 18 kids and a lot of student helpers (high school) so it's a little crazy. But he told me that he loved school and that he "never wants to stop going." I may have to remind him of that in a few years! Love you all!

The One Semester of Spanish Love Song

What to do

Here is the problem, that in the total scheme of things isn't really very important.
My dishwasher, 12 years old, isn't really cleaning the dishes anymore, although we still use it. I'm not sure why, just habit I guess.
I need a new one but can't decide what to do. Obviously, the "in" thing is stainless steel. The range is really old but the fridge is fairly new. So do I go "bone" and then everything will match. Or do I go stainless steel, and then replace the others when the time comes, which will mean many years of unmatching. Or, I could go stainless steel and paint the fridge silver and hope the stove dies so I can replace it sometime after we have recovered from the wedding. In the meantime, we just clean them really well before we put them in and keep putting off the decision.
If any of you designers have an opinion, please share it.
I loved conference and am trying to take President Eyring's advice, along with other great advice.
Also, Steve Christensen, Edna's husband, is in the hospital with a brain tumor. They are trying to do radiation as they can't do surgery. I'm sure she would appreciate a card or call.-thought you'd like to know.
Love Mom

ah the excitement....!

I know it's been awhile since i've posted anything, I just don't feel like there's anything excited to share. So i'll share everything unexciting. Malia is loving all day school. She really loves her teacher and class. Her teacher talked with me about testing Malia for the TAG program later this year, so we'll see. Jacob starts preschool on the 17th and asks me EVERY day, how much longer? He will go four days on, two days off, for four hours a day. Yeay! Cole isn't going to know what to do with himself, having his best playmate gone for so long during the day. Jacob and Cole spend HOURS every day building things with their legos...they are pretty creative with the stuff they come up with. Claire had her 6 mo. appt today. 5 shots...poor girl! She was in the 50th percentile for height at 26" and 18% in weight at 13lb 10oz. Now that she is a strictly formula girl, she has become much happier. she takes great naps now and sleeps great at night. So I can't complain. Brent and I are busy making crafts for a craft bazaar we will be attending in Late november. I'm making decorative signs (vinyl & stencil) and Brent is making some benches/side tables/hutches...Should be interesting to see if anything sells? Well, I won't bore you any more with the exciting details of my life....ciao!

Fun Times and LSAT's

Last Saturday was eventful for several reasons. First I took the LSAT, which was loads of fun. Basically it consists of five 35 minute sections followed by a 35 minute writing sample. But don't worry, we were granted a GENEROUS 10 minute break after the 3rd section. Hopefully I did OK on the test so I can get into a decent law school. We'll see.

THEN, Saturday night I went to this place called "Jump On It!", which basically consists of a bunch of conjoining trampolines--check out the video at their website:

www.jumponitparty.com

I escaped with only minor injuries, including the trampoline version of "rug burn" on the tops of my feet--ouch:
Seriously though, other than the fact that this place is super dangerous and parents would have to be insane to let their kids play there, it was a LOT of fun.

Oksana and I have our engagement pictures, some of which turned out OK. These are two of my favorites:



I like the first one, but she's not crazy about it. Weird, huh?

Sauvie Island

I love this time of year...all the things associated with fall. We decided to venture to Sauvie Island this past weekend (located in the Portland area). We stopped at a place that had all sorts of fun pumpkins for sale, a corn maze, caramel apples, an animal barn and our favorite a pumpkin sling shot. We actually hit the target on the last one. It was a lot of fun to enjoy the fall spirit. We then went on a 3 mile hike in a wildlife area (well known for it's bird watching). Then we just kind ventured around the island.
This is just a picture we took of us sitting on the giant hay pyramid (you can see it in the background of the previous picture)

We had heard rumors about nudist beaches and lo and behold... Out of about 8 beach entrances only one sign said "Clothing area." We found it quite humorous. It was quite nice that the day was slightly cold, rainy and windy because it allowed us to venture out on the beach. We were the only ones around. The cool thing is now we can claim we've been to a nudist beach.

Canyoneering

Garrick and I are pretty much canyoneerers (I think that's a new word) after a trip we took last weekend. We left Friday after work and drove down to Zion National Park. It was after 10 pm when we arrived, but we still pitched our tents and called it a night. We got up early the next morning so we could get started on our first slot canyon.

When Sharon & Trent first invited us to go hiking, I thought, "Yeah, that could be fun. We'll see." It wasn't until later that I realized that the hiking would be way more than just hiking. We would be swimming through mucky water, rapelling down very steep cliffs, and climbing over rock after rock. Garrick and I decided we'd give it a try. (Just between you and me...I was in it for the camping. I needed to see if Garrick could survive a night in a tent.)

Anyway, we had a lot of fun, but we were scared, too. (See picture #2) We knew that the last rapel would be a "free fall" rapel of 90 ft, and that had both of us nervous for the entire second hike. In the end, it was pretty fun and not as scary as we thought it'd be (or maybe that's just my take looking back a week later.)

Luckily, Sharon & Trent have a waterproof camera, so we were able to get some "proof" of what we actually did. ENJOY!

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

It's all about trusting the equipment!

Garrick's having fun!

The 90 ft. "freefall" rapel. It really wasn't as bad as I thought.

But, I was too scared to look down the whole time.

Garrick getting started on the same rapel.

A view of the last rapel from the bottom of the canyon floor.