Christmas Morning

We had Christmas at our house and stayed home all day. Christmas Eve day, Santa asked us to help him with a project upstairs in Nick's room, so nobody was allowed upstairs all day and all night. So, the kids had to sleep in the basement in the extra beds on sleeping bags. They slept in until 8am (Probably because it was so dark down there.) I think everyone was happy with their stuff--Mallory and Carter with their Ipods and earphones, and Nick was thrilled with his new room! They got games that they played most of the day. They also played on the new sled. I made a nice turkey dinner that night, which was a little more work than I had imagined--it always is. Stress relieving, but disappointing that night, we realized the weather was going to be too much to travel to Provo/Orem to see our families the next day, so we postponed the trip until New Year's Day. (By the way, that was very fun! It was like having two Christmas's) Enjoy the slideshow!

Jamie at 3 months

Jamie, just being cute and doing new things. He pretty much always smiles when you talk and smile at him, holds his head up, regards his hands and plays with toys. He's such a good baby--content when his needs are met and sleeps through the night!

Maeser 5th Grade Christmas Concert

Another great concert with the recorders--it's amazing how well they have taught the kids! They sound great! They got to perform for their own school and parents, then the next day, traveled to several different schools around Vernal and Roosevelt.


Recorders in action

Mallory and her good friend Lindsey

She looked darling in her sparkly Christmas dress!

Thanksgiving

We went to my brother Bruce's cabin in Heber and spent the weekend with their family and my parents. Dinner was great and we sat around playing games, watching movies, talking and laughing. One little problem: Bruce's cabin is up several extremely steep hills and we had our van--it snowed the first night! We were stuck! Even 4-wheel drives were sliding around. Michael tried to get down and park at the Timberlakes lot before it snowed again but he was sliding all over the road--he found a driveway of someone else's cabin after realizing that this was not going to work. Bruce chained up and took Michael and my Dad to the tire store (which was lined up with other Timberlakes residents and visitors) to get chains for their vehicles. They worked great--I guess I just didn't realize how effective those are or we would have bought them the first year we moved to Vernal. Traveling over Strawberry and Daniels in snow can get pretty bad--I can think of a few times where chains would have really helped. $75 to get a family safely down the hill seemed like nothing. Anyway, it was a fun weekend with LOTS OF PHOTOS! Aimee and Bruce have a beautiful cabin and were extremely generous and accomodating. Funniest moment (other than Bruce's re-cap of the Utah-BYU game) was when Bruce played the part of Nacho Libre when he says, "When you are a man, you sometimes wear stretchy pants in your room." Had to be there. . .We also headed down to AF to buy shoes and stopped by Grandma Peterson's for a visit. FUN THANKSGIVING!

Carter's Family Home Evening Lesson

Jen & Bryan Rouska are Carter's primary teachers. They are at the part of the manual where they teach about the Atonement, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Life of Jesus Christ, so it takes a few lessons. They brought that new book called "Reflections," which has beautiful photos representing the life of Jesus Christ. Carter was quite taken with that book and after class, he asked Jen if he could secretly borrow the book to teach a family night lesson with. Jen secretly told me about it--I said nothing to Carter after school on Monday, but knew what he was doing when he snuck out of the house. For family night, he sat up on a stool and faced the rest of us on the couch and started explaining the few pages they looked at in the lesson about the Crucifixion and Forgiveness. We had not seen the book, so we were all very quiet and reverent when he showed us the pictures. (I asked if I could take a couple of pictures since this was his first lesson he planned by himself.) He turned to the page about forgiveness when Jesus was on the cross and said, "This is probably the most important part that we learned." He stopped for a second and we realized he was trying to get a hold of himself so he wouldn't cry. Then, as started to talk, his voice cracked and he started to tear up as he said, "Jesus even forgave them after they hung him on the cross and killed him." You could tell he was trying so hard not to cry because if he did, he wouldn't be able to teach us. I couldn't even look at Michael who kept trying to get me to glance his way--I knew if I did that I would cry and embarrass Carter. I have not felt such a reverent spirit EVER during Family Home Evening. He told me when I was tucking him in that night that he loved the pictures in Primary but didn't feel as special as he did while he was teaching during Family Night.

Twilight

I took Mallory to Twilight on opening night. We went with Jen Rouska, her mom Joann, Liz Timonthy and her daughters. I was a little worried because she's right at that age of "Is it appropriate or not?" Well, she loved it and started reading the book. She hates reading but can't put this one down--kind of like the Harry Potter phenomenon for boys. She started Harry Potter book 1 a couple of months ago and likes it but only reads the minimum required pages for school. With Twilight, she is sneaking it at night after she is supposed to be in bed! Notice how un-mad I am about that. It reminds me of the Sylvan commercial from a few years ago where the mom "catches" her kid reading in their room and gets a little teary. I'll admit that I get a little teary from that commercial. . .I'm lame.

Who does Jamie look like?

It's fun to get comments like, "Oh, he's a Peterson!" Or saying he looks just like one of the other kids (Mallory is mentioned most often), but he looks like ALL of them, depending on the day and the look. Here is the proof: (Jamie is the top photo of all the pairs)

Jamie and Nick:

Jamie and Mallory:

Jamie and Carter:

It's so fun to go back to all these photos and compare!

Michael's Birthday

The kids made breakfast for Michael for his birthday. He was very appreciative. We had an activity packed day--his work, the kid's basketball games and stuff, so we didn't have a chance to celebrate until about 8:45. We took him to Wingers, then home for presents. Carter and Mallory made cute cards and they all went in on a BYU football. I gave him some Jazz jammy pants and. . .here it is. . .

GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR! Michael is just not ready to grow up!

Mallory's Card:

Carter's Card: (The picture is of Carter running into Michael's arms to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mallory's Suzuki Recital

Mallory's piano teacher has each student plan a recital in their home to pass off Suzuki, Book 1. Mallory did a great job--it's very hard to pass of that many songs ALL FROM MEMORY! It was a neat evening. It was just our family and her awesome teacher, Carla Cleavenger. Mallory wrote all the song names on slips of paper and put them in a bowl--we passed it around and chose a song, one by one until it was empty. Then we had gingersnaps and visited for a while. It was so fun to have Carla play duets with Mallory on some of the songs. Now on to Suzuki, Book 2.

Veteran's Day Program

Mallory performed in the Maeser Elementary 5th Grade Veteran's Day program. They have been practicing their recorders for a couple of months for this--it sounded great! I can't believe that many children can play together that well. They played "Stars and Stripes Forever," "America," and "God Bless America." Another group sang some patriotic songs to the Veterans as they stood. It brought tears to my eyes--I couldn't help it!

Here are some photos of Mallory and her friend, Lindsey Hunt, the whole group, and the last photo I got a kick out of because Mallory is talking! I was there and believe me, it was not allowed!

Warheads are BRUTAL!

This is what too many Warhead candies do to your child's tongue! NO KIDDING. They are so sour that they burn your tongue. I guess when they say citric acid, they mean hydrochloric acid!

Carter's Baptism/Jamie's Baby Blessing

What an awesome day! We combined Carter's Baptism with Jamie's Blessing. Carter had to wait a couple of extra months, but he didn't mind.

As we were waiting for the baptism meeting to start, I started to get emotional when I saw Nick on the stand--he was giving the talk on the Holy Ghost. Then our family started to come in--Grandma Peterson with Scott and Tracie's family, Terry and Sherry, my parents and grandma. Plus our ward friends--the Rouskas, Hunts, Melines, Powells and Timothys. Nick did a great job on his talk--I knew it was hard for him but could tell he was glad he did it. Logan Timothy was baptized first--we were so glad to share that with him because a lot of his family and friends were there for Carter also. I sat next to his mom, Liz, as we watched and shared the same tears. Carter was beaming when he entered the water and he and Michael did a great job. (I knelt down with the kids so I could see.) It's indiscribable the feeling when you witness your child being baptized--so much love and spirituality combined.

When they were confirmed, both our family and friends gathered in one of the larger rooms, and Liz and I gave our testimonies so our familys could hear. They confirmed Logan first, then Carter. Jamie was blessed right after, which was, of course, a little overwhelming. His binky dropped out of his mouth right in the middle so he started crying, but stopped after a few seconds. My dad later told me that when he was crying, they all just "took it up a notch," which means they bounced him higher and faster. Then Nick was ordained to be a teacher. How awesome to have all of those men who mean the most to you be there to assist in that ordination! Needless to say, it was wonderful, spiritual and emotional. Lots of gratitude also.

After, we all met at our house and had a wonderful lunch, thanks to everyone who helped and brought stuff. We sat around and ate, talked and laughed. What a great day! Everyone went home except Aimee and the kids, who stayed overnight. FUN!

(There were two little glitches that worked out: Bruce, my brother, couldn't make it because his basement flooded, but it looks like there wasn't too much damage. That is why Aimee and the kids came w/o him. The Ottos, (my sister's family), came a day late! There was a major miscommunication with her about having the baptism and blessing on the same day, so they thought they were only coming for the blessing, which is always on Sunday, so they came Sunday! OOPS! But, it was still a great day--they came to Sacrament Meeting with us and the kids played the day away late into the evening. We got way more one-on-one time so it was all good! That was the first time they saw Jamie also.)

Halloween

I told Mallory & Carter that they would need to come up with their own this year since we were spending so much on the Baptism and Baby Blessing food and "stuff." They were understanding about it, realizing that new scriptures and a Blessing outfit were more important, and came up with awesome costumes! (I think that when kids are creative, they are happier anyway!)

Carter was Jack Sparrow--he used the hat he spent most of his Disneyland money on last Feb. and put together the rest. He also had a fancy key he bought in the Disneyland pirate store, a pirate compass, a pirate gun (you can't see it because it's on the right side of his body), a pirate cutlass, and best of all, used his treasure chest for his candy "bag." As you can tell, he took his character seriously--I love his stance.

Mallory wanted to be a gangster and it was almost too realistic! She looked like a boy! (Of course the cutest boy ever!) We did get the "Bling" neck ware from the Dollar Store. She's also packing a piece. That's always attractive on a girl. I had to get a back view to appreciate the full effect of the baggy pants. Nick loaned her the shirt and hat--seriously, that was a sacrifice for him, but he wanted her to look GOOD! Thanks, Nick!

Jamie, on the other side of a violent, murderous character, was a cute, snuggly, warm little bumble bee.

We went to the Trunk or Treat, which is for our ward, THE BEST!!!!!! Everybody goes from the ward AND neighborhood and it's fast, efficient, fun, safe, and the kids are satisfied with how much candy they get--it's pretty much like Halloween in a Box! Like a cake mix. Nick didn't dress up--he just went with us to the the T or T and added, along with his friends, just enough obnoxiousness to make Halloween irritating for everyone--you know, the cute kids in their cute costumes come along and innocently hold out their bags and say "Trick or Treat" in a cute way, say thank you. . .Then the young teenagers hang around--not wanting to officially trick or treat or anything, just be near it to get an occasional candy bar and make fun of the kids. Nice. After, the kids went around our neighborhood of about 20 houses, which gave the kids the perfect amount of trick or treating but with out the exhaustion. Nick went to Jake Meline's B-Day party. They watched a scary movie and got treated to the annual scare by Bryan Rouska in his gorilla suit. He visited me also, like he did last year when he came in and scared me so bad that I peed my pants. This year he just quietly entered the house--Carter saw him and just told him to chill. When I saw him, I was already expecting it so the fear was way toned down. He said after that he was going to steal the baby but realized that's going TOO FAR!!!!! Thanks, Bryan for exercising good judgement (and NOT going along with your crazy wife JEN!) since I may not have recovered from that, even though it was a joke. It was a fun evening, other than the fact that we had to stay up really late to clean and get tons of things ready for the next day. Ok, so it was only fun for the kids. . .

BOO!

Jamie in his little ghost outfit from my friend, Lynette Henline. Sorry Jamie, but it's too cute to be scary! Also, he's only been smiling on demand for a couple of days, so catching it on camera is great!

Mallory's Angry Prayer

(A little background info first: After that story we heard about President Hinkley never having to lecture his children because everything he wanted them to know was covered in family prayer--a loving way to let them know he was concerned for each child--we have been trying to pray for each other, and asking the kids to try also.) Now the story:

After fighting with her brothers, and Michael and I getting after her since she clearly started it, Mallory was pretty angry. She stayed angry until bed time, which was a good half hour. Michael asked her to give the prayer and she did with an obvious grudge in her voice. She said, "Thank you for this day, thank you that I could go to basketball practice. . ." then closed her prayer. Michael gave her the "Ok, is that it?" look and asked, "Aren't you going to pray for your brothers?" She came back hard with a biting "Duh" tone in her voice, "How am I suppossed to know what they did all day!?" We started cracking up (since she did have a good point) and of course that made her go into a full on tantrum.

As you can see, we are effectively teaching our children lessons and values that are clearly working.

Carter's Near Death Experience

Carter came home from school today, announcing that he almost died. Hmmm. That of course got my attention. He told me that his friend shared a chicken nugget with him in the lunch room and it got caught in this throat. I asked if he could breathe and he said, with absoluteness, "No. I was really scared." He said he stood up and went over into the middle of the lunch room where he had more room to move and (you are going to have to imagine this part) gave himself back thrusts by joining his hands behind his lower back. He did it a few times until the nugget came out. This is hard to believe, and I'll never know if he really was choking, but his demonstration of his self heimlich menuever--him hitting his own back while flailing around like a flopping fish was pretty dang funny. (Plus, I was impressed with him taking command of his situation.) He said, "It was the scariest thing that has EVER happened to me but now I know what it feels like to choke to death, but it doesn't really hurt that bad."

Ok.

The Darling Babysitter

After leaving Mallory with the baby for 30 minutes, I came home to this scene--she had fed & burped him, cuddled him to sleep and even took the chance to get her reading done! She is learning to be a real mom--MULTI-TASKING!!!

Holding Jamie while we were getting ready. She looks like a teenager!

Nick's Birthday

We decided to celebrate Nick's birthday in Provo by planning a little trip for UEA. We invited his grandparents to Macaroni Grill (his favorite!) for dinner. It was a surprise! Here are some details:

Opening a card from Tutu with money!! We surprised her with a visit earlier that day.

Nick with his grandparents at the restaurant

With his family

Getting sung to, opera style

Aimee, Emma and Jamie

Opening gifts: San Diego Chargers jammies from Mom. Other gifts: Money from Grandma Peterson, Money from Grandma Lynne, Gold coins from Papa, Money from Aimee, golf balls from Carter and Mallory, Skullcandy earphones from Mom and Dad, and a denim quilt from Mom.

That night, sleeping in his new jammies under his new quilt.