The Reason Nikki hates to Cook

Ok so I am know to not be a good cook and it is a joke around our house that when Derek started to date me and married me he thought he was getting this amazing women who could cook, sew, and would clean because she has a degree in Home Ec Education. But the truth is I have always hated to cook and didn't have to do it lots growing up because my sister Aly loved to cook and always did. So I thought it would be fun to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve with Ashley (Tanis had no interest in it). So I got it all mixed up and when it was done I said this looks really liquidy compared to ones I have made before but I showed Ashley how to drop them on the pan and we got it done and started to bake them. I looked in on them when there was about 1 minute left and the whole cookie sheet was one flat cookie and it was almost dripping off the pan. I called Linda (my mother in law) in and we started to laugh. She asked did you use the small round container for the flour. I said yes and then she told me oh no that is the powdered sugar. So my cookies had no flour just 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar and I had doubled the amount of chocolate chips because I hate not having enough. Needless to say the were very sweet. I was able to put the right amount of flour in to the mix and they turned out fine but they are a little hard. You can see the 2 different batches in the picture. So from now on Santa I am sorry but you will probably get store bought cookies.

Christmas at the Peterson's

Ashley loved everything she got and her favorites she would act like she had fainted.

Most of the time this is how you would see Tanis. He rarely reacted and we never knew if he liked any of his gifts but he did.

Wyatt was so fun to watch this year. When he figured out what to do he wanted to unwrap everyone's gifts. He thought the object with cookie monster was to step on him and then he would make noise.

Here are the kids with the Santa cookies and his milk before they went to bed.

Every Year the kids get new pj's to wear. The last 2 years I have sewed them. This year I didn't sew the boys shirts but they still turn out adorable. These are courtesy of Nana.

The Trial of Christmas Picture Taking

So I really forgot what it was like to have to take pictures with a almost 2 year old. I now remember why I took the older 2 to Wal-mart or Sears all the time and would spend an hour there while the photographer tried to get a photo. And these few pictures don't even show the drama that was happening in between them. Wyatt was very determined that he was not going to sit in the train position (one kid in front of the other) like I tried to do in the 1st picture. My girlfriend Karen had did it for years with her 4 kids and I thought it was adorable why not try it with mine. Guess I will try again next year. So all in all I think I got one good one which of course is the last one so it wasn't a total failure.

Happy Halloween

The kids had a blast at the trunk or treat Thursday night and then Tanis went to a Halloween party Friday night and Ashley went around our apartment complex. They brought the mother load of candy home like every year and it was nice to have 2 older kids that I felt safe enough to let go to a party or around our complex without me. This year I was not the funnest mom to have for Halloween but at least they still got to go.

Game 6 ACLS Red Sox vs Tampa Bay

In our house it is Red Sox fever. This game was a must win for us to force game 7 on Sunday and then we have to win that one and then we will be going to the World Series for the 3rd time in the last 5 years. We won so now the neighbors will get to hear lots of screaming again tomorrow night. Even the kids watch and wear their hats that their PopPop so proudly gave them. It is fun to watch even Wyatt learning how important this team is and clapping when we do and tonight laid on the couch watching the game through almost the whole thing, probably because he has a fever and was throwing up but that is ok he was still watching. We love you Red Sox and will always believe in you.

Kit Club Layouts for September

This month we had 3 great challenges. The paper was pretty bright for my liking but I made it work and that is what the whole point of kit club is. The first layout is with the challenge to not crop your picture(s). I used brown distressing ink to go around the edges of the chipboard and blue around the different papers. The second layout was called Stash. We had a list of things to chose from and had to use 5 of them on our layout. So I used buttons, brads, a heart, an arrow, and a frame out of chipboard that I inked. I also had sewed with embroidery floss on the layout. The third layout was our last challenge which was weather. We had to go for a walk or find something in the weather that inspired us to do our layout. So I used the picture from my birthday when it was snowing. I also used ghost letters for the title. This layout was really fast to do. The last 3 layouts were extra paper that the leader gave us and as you can see I also went and bought more because heaven forbid I only do a 1 page layout. On the LegoLand layout I used the puzzle pieces that were in the kit and painted them I thought this would be a cute connection to Legos. I always enjoy doing the kits and seeing how I can stretch myself each month. This month it was the weather layout that really took me a long time to come up with.

Greetings From Wyatt

This is what I was greeted to the other afternoon when I had to get Wyatt up early from his nap. Then again this morning he had his diaper half off when we went in to get him up for the morning. Don't know what I am going to do about this but maybe some duct tape will help.

Wyatt's 1st haircut and cooking with Grandma

Before the haircut

After the haircut

The back so you can all see the chop job

The kids had a great day helping grandma make oatmeal raisin cookies. Even Wyatt helped and eventaully got the concept to pour his stuff into the bowl. It was a fun day for everyone.

Socialized Medicine

I don't normally publically talk about my political views unless it is with my family and those friends that I know have the same views as me or won't judge me for what I believe in but I have to inform you of this issue. Derek a year ago had some testing done for anxiety and needed to be put on a medication. Of course our insurance which is the state medical(which is basically what socialized medicine is) would not approve it. He then went through 3 trial meds that didn't work. So we then tried again to get the med that worked approved this was back in March. We heard nothing for a very long time. I tried to call and they told me that they had nothing to do with it. Ok you are my insurance company how can you have nothing to do with it. So we went back to the doctor last week and tried again to have the prescription put through. Again it was denied and we (meaning Dr Hall's nurse) had to put all of Derek's file through again to get it approved. Finally it was. So for a year because we have a wonderful Dr., Derek has been taking samples. But lets think about it if we didn't have a doctor that cared about us what then no samples and, I think I would have probably killed my husband (just kidding) but I probably would be in a mental health ward at the hospital. When someone needs a medicine it should be given to them. This was absolutely ridiculous and this is what we will get all the time if our country goes to socialized medicine. Derek served his mission in Canada where they have socialized medicine and he has a collar bone that wasn't set right and he told me that if we think it is bad here know it will only get worse we will be waiting in lines for everything. So as you go to the polls this November think about your choice and if you want to be able to get what you want when you want it or do you want the government to tell you when you can have it and then it might be to late by the time they give it to you.

Semi Famous

I am able to say that I will be semi famous now. I have been asked to be on our local scrap booking store's design team. This means that I will make layouts, altered things, home decor items etc. for them and they will hang them up in their store and there is also a blog for Paper Pals Design Team. I feel very honored to have been selected. So keep a watch out for those of you that are local in the store for my stuff and those that are not there is a link on the side of my blog to get to the design teams blog so that you too can see the semi famous projects of Nikki Peterson.

My Layouts for Kit Club from the month of August

This is my favorite one from this month. We had to use the word blessed in our layout. I sewed, used white paint, and chipboard.

This layout was fun to do I used paint with a sponge to get a watery look. Originally the paper was white. As one of my friends says if you don't like the color of the paper paint over it and make it what you like. I also sewed on this layout.

This layout was the 3rd challenge where we used a sketch. If you know me there are very few originals I love to use sketches or as we call it scrap lift.

This 2 page layout was another of the challenges where we had to interview someone. I did Tanis b/c I knew all his favorites during that period of his life.

These are just 2 cards I did with the left over scraps I had.
I enjoy this club so much it really makes me stretch sometimes to think of ways to use the paper and still be my style. Hope you enjoy.

Super Saturday

Ornaments and the other class is a hot pad/mitt class

Picture Tile Board

Wood Plague to hang your stockings on

Table Runners (there are 12 but we are only doing 2 November and Decembers) and the glass vase doesn't come with it just showing what you can add to the runners.

Mommy and little girl aprons

Christmas Card, Bag, and Tag

So I am in charge of our Super Saturday this year and I am so excited. Heavenly Father really gave me the inspiration in picking my committee. Besides the fact that they are all very talented, one of them has been very supportive in a personal way. I know that the ladies were put into my life for a reason at this time. So I wanted to post the pics of the samples of the projects we are doing so if any of you that actually read my blog like any you can get them if you would like to.

New Bunk bed For Tanis and Ashley

We decided it was time to get the kids a bunk bed and make more room in their room. So last night Derek and I started a 8pm and got done at 1:30am making this awesome bunk for them. It is solid pine and smells so good. The kids love it. Now you can actually take more than 3 steps in their room.

The 1st day outfits

So I thought that my fashion sister would enjoy these pictures of the kids in the outfits. And I thought it would be fun for her and Nana to see their stylish new shoes. Enjoy

This says Champion on the shoe. Tanis was moving so it came out blurry.

First day of School

I can't not even tell you how excited all of us are for the first day. Ok so maybe it is all mom's excitement but that's ok.

Guess it's not cool anymore to look at mom for a picture when you get to 4th grade.

There they go BYE!!!!