Happy 6th Birthday Kimberly

Happy Birthday to our Kimberly Nicole Peterson. 6 years ago you were given to us by Heavenly Father and we were so blessed. I can't believe you are already 6 years old. Where has the time gone.

We had a great day today. Got to go to Kimberly's school and share some pictures and take some treats. I found out that all the kids in her class think she is a great friend. I loved how every kid's hand shot up when the teacher asked if they had something nice to share about Kimberly. I thought she was a good example to her friends but this proves to me even more what a good girl she is. Then we had lunch with my parents and had a lot of fun at lunch. Afterwards we went home and opened presents. This year I sent Kimberly on a hunt for all her presents and she truely loved it. It was a highlight of her whole day. After presents and cake and visits, it was off to dance practice where they sang happy birthday to her. After dance we took her out to dinner. Right now her favorite place is Chilis so we went there. They sang happy birthday to her and gave her a free dessert so that was nice. We had so many visitors and presents and phone calls today. I think Kimberly finally went to sleep about 10 minutes ago (9:10) with a smile on her face.

Matthew had a lot of fun today celebrating Kimberly's birthday. He was enjoying the presents as much as Kimberly. If you ask him when his birthday is, he will till you not till May. haha.

Our daughter is just growing up too fast. We love her so much!


Happy Birthday Kimberly!

Sportsmen Expo Saturday

Yesterday we ventured down to Salt Lake City to attend the Sportsmen Expo. This is one of Brian's favorite outings. On the way to Salt Lake, Brian and I commented on how we hadn't headed south of Cache Valley since December (we need to get out more). The expo was very full but we had a lot of fun.

Our first stop was to visit with a couple of KUTV 2 news people. We got to meet Mark Kobel and get his autograph and then had a good visit with Sterlin Poulsen. That was pretty fun for us. Kimberly was happy that she had seen those people on TV. Then we made our way to the splash dogs. This is one of our favorite things to see at the expo. These cute dogs leap off docks into a big pool of water... all to see how far the can jump. A few dogs actually make the jump but my favorite are the dogs that are scared. They run to the end of the dock and then start barking at their toy in the water. haha. Most of the dogs eventually jump into the pool but there are the few that have to leave the dock without getting wet. The kids enjoyed the dogs.

Then we were finding food and found something more important... DOGS FOR SALE. The kids got to pet and hold the cutest puppies. Here are a few pictures:

Then it was off the find the bears. We had seen the cutest baby bears on the news and they said you could see them at the expo. So we looked and finally found them. You could pay to have a picture and hold the baby bear. We looked at them first and realized that we had to hold them and pay the money.

We got to hold the cute bear (it naws like a puppy on your arm) and had a picture.

All in all we had a fun day. We got to see a few more news people (Shauna Lake and Lindsey Storr) and checked out some 4 wheeling stuff. Brian did buy a new toy for the 4 wheeler.

We wore out the kids and ourselves. I would have had much more fun but I wasn't up to par. Oh well.

The Journey continues

So this past week we have been "staging" our house to look presentable. I know that sounds silly but I hear it helps sell. So we have been going through more boxes and totes, filling up lots of stuff. It is truely amazing how much stuff you can collect in 8 years of marriage.

We did get a storage shed to start putting stuff in and we moved 4 truck loads of stuff into it in 2 days. We still have 3 more rooms to go through and clean. That has been the other big job... cleaning. Not that I don't clean every week but I just don't do the deep cleaning. I make my house pleasant to the eye but if you look closely, you are sure to see something dirty. So I have been on my hands and knees cleaning every corner of this house. I think the most disgusting thing came in our bedroom. We haven't been able to rearrange our bedroom furniture since we got it when we got married. So we figured out a way to move it so make our room look bigger and I couldn't believe the yuck that built up behind the bed. Ugh! Note to self... move the bed at least once a year from now on!

I wish it was warmer to clean up the outside of the house right now. We are having some nice weather but not nice enough to melt all the snow and make trees grow. haha. Plus we are dreading the backyard. Here's a picture... when the snow melts, our lawn will not be green. It will be full of doggie doo doo and it isn't pretty. Good thing that isn't my job. haha.

Well we are hoping to put the house up for sale this week. We have no idea what the outcome will be (I sure hope someone is out there just waiting for our house to go on the market) but we make the best of it.

Until next time!

Our journey

So some of you may know (and for those of you who don't), we are getting ready to put our house up for sale and try to move. We love our house and our neighborhood and our ward but we are simply growing out of our home. So we are hoping and praying we will be able to sell our house soon and find a bigger home.

We started our journey by boxing up the kids' room. We filled up 7 boxes of toys from both rooms and if you look in their rooms, you couldn't tell. How did we get so many toys and where have we been hiding them for the past 5 years. haha. I then boxed up all my "projects". My mom taught me well... haha. I have been piling up projects that I started, wanted to started, intend to start soon, etc. I didn't realize how many I had until I filled up a big tote yesterday of them all. When we find a house, I am seriously going to take one thing out of that tote at a time and finish it before anything else comes out. Next we need to tackle our mud room. This room has become our storage, throw anything in there, room. I am dreading this room. But it is my next (tomorrow night) project. After that, we are going to touch up any areas we need to fix and hope to get the word out about our house by first of March (that's next week... augh!)

Wish us luck in selling and finding a place.

I can't wait

I can't wait till he is 16 an on his first date! I am going to bring out all the embarrassing pictures. haha

Valentine Anniversary

Happy Valentine's Day to all. This is a special day for Brian and me. Brian proposed marriage to me on Valentine's Day 8 years ago. We had been dating for about 8 months and we were promised to each other but really hadn't talked about getting engaged. It was a surprise to me and he did a great job picking out the ring. He was so nervous... I will never forget how nervous he was. I won't go into the details but it was very special. The funny part ... Brian broke out in hives a couple days later all over his body. We suspect it was from being so nervous. haha.

Love to all on this holiday.

Our Lovable Duke

Tell me this dog isn't loved.

Sometimes Duke forgets he is a 95 lb lab. He thinks he is a 10 lb poodle. haha

He truely loves Brian. He tries everyday to get in Brian's lap while in a chair or on the couch. This particular day when Brian layed down, Duke got up on his chest and really loved him up. It is pretty sweet to see.

Our Wedding Day

One of my goals this year was to get older pictures scanned and onto the computer and on disk. Well one group of pictures that we don't have on disk is our wedding pictures. I am only half way thru right now scanning but I love to look at them. This was our first (civil) wedding. We later sealed our marriage in the Logan Temple. I loved my dress and just enjoyed our wedding day. I know my mom was going crazy making sure everything was just right but I didn't feel the stress. Many things didn't go as planned (music got messed up during the ceremony, matron of honor's dress didn't arrive until the day before the wedding, etc) but you couldn't tell. To Brian and me, it was perfect.

This was our engagement picture. It was up the canyon in a secluded spot and it was beautiful. There was a waterfall behind us. Tricky place to get to but still... it was perfect.

I loved my dress. This was up on temple grounds and it was a pretty place to take pictures.

Don't our parents look cute. We all look so young. haha.

Our Matron of Honor and Best Man. Our longest and dearest friends Erica and Paul.

This was Brian's family... they have grown since this picture. All of Brian's siblings, nieces and nephews are in this picture.

This is my family. The contrast between Brian's picture and mine is my picture consists of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I am an only child so no siblings for me. Funny how we have about the same size and yet what a difference.

My flower girls. They are all family and between the ages of 6 and 7. Now they are all teenagers.
Oh we look so young. But so in love.

It is so fun to look back. This year will mark 8 years married and 9 years together. Some ways it feels like we just got together and in some ways we feel like we have been married forever. It is hard to remember life before us.

Love is wonderful. Love is eternity.

Happy New Years 2010

We had a fun New Year's Eve. This is the first year we decided to let the kids stay up as long as they could. (I know we are silly!) Kimmy was determined to stay up to see the ball drop in New York (even though she kept telling us when the chimes go off).

I had to buy some fun things for them to ring in the new year and they sure did enjoy them. We also had sparkling apple juice and played Wii games for a couple hours. We had a great time. About 9:45 Matthew had enough and crashed in my arms. About 9:55, Kimberly closed her eyes. With 2 minutes to go, we tried to wake her but she was out. So they both missed the ball drop. Oh well. The amazing thing to me is Brian was awake the entire time. I think this is the first year he has stayed up till 10 p.m. on New Years in a long time. I was reading a good book and ended up ringing in the new year at midnight while my house slept sound.

Happy New Year to all. Hope this year is a great one.

2009 Year in Review

What a year 2009 was. There were a lot of celebrities pass away this year, Obama had his first year of his Presidency, the war is still going, and celebrities are getting into trouble left and right. (shame on you Tiger Woods)

Here in Logan, we had an interesting 2009 year as well. The year started out a bit rocky. Brian's job wasn't working a full week and we started struggling with bills and what not (like many people this past year). Luckily by July, Brian's work went from 3 days a week to 7 straight days for the rest of the year.

Birthdays came and went and we enjoyed them all.

The spring brought sadness to our family. My grandmother (Mere-Mere) was told she only had less than 3 months to live due to cancer in March and passed away in May. We were lucky enough to spend some time with her before she got really ill. We will miss her terribly but we also know she is in a beautiful place waiting for us to return.

The summer was a lot of fun for the kids. Matthew tried hard all summer learning how to pedal his bike. Kimberly learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and we were so proud. She did it all by herself too. She was determined to learn to ride on her own and she did great.

This fall marked a big deal at our house. Kimberly started Kindergarten at Bridger Elementary. She seemed so big going to school. I am still amazed she is old enough for school but loving every minute of it.The holidays came and went and we stuffed ourselves silly at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had a great Christmas and we all feel spoiled.

2010 is on our doorstep (the kids are ready with their hats and horns even though they will probably celebrate around 9:00 p.m. because they will not make it up past that time). We are looking forward to another year of blessings and many exciting adventures. We know there will be some surprises and I am sure some tears here and there. We take whatever comes our way with our heads held high.

Blessing to all for the new year. :-)

Christmas Pictures 2009

Christmas Morning

Silly dog looking over the couch.

This year's Christmas outifts.

Beautiful girl.

Handsome boy.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 has come and gone and boy what a fun one it was. The month of December has been insane and so glad that it is almost over. Between Christmas, school, and church; we have been running.

The weekend before Christmas is always set for Grammie's house. We go up to Soda to take presents to my grandparents and visit with my parents. My mom loves to have us come up to show off her house at Christmas time and this year didn't disappoint. Their favorite new addition to the house, a Jimmie Johnson blowup. haha. Funny dad. One major thing that happens during this weekend is Santa Elves. See my mom has a deal with Santa's elves that they will come and fill up the stockings while we are sleeping. That is pretty fun for the kids to see what Santa's elves bring in their stockings. As usual, Santa's elves overdid themselves and spoiled us rotten.

Christmas Eve was a family day. We spent a few hours at my in-laws visiting with Brian's family. It is a lot of fun for the kids to play with their cousins and everyone is so excited for Christmas.

We have a few traditions during the Christmas season and I think we got them all done this year. One is to see Christmas lights around town. There are a few Griswold houses that always seem to grow each year that we never miss. We didn't make the entire town this year but did get to see some nicely decorated houses. I have to say though, Woodside Drive looked pretty sharp this year all decked out. Another tradition is to watch Christmas shows all December. I think we watched them all this year. Some of my favorites: White Christmas, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Christmas Story. This year we got to burn a candle every night and read a Christmas story (my in-laws made us a folder of stories). Then on Christmas Eve we write letters to Santa Claus, put out our cookies and milk, read the scripture story, and get to bed early. All was accomplished.

Christmas morning was probably one of the best we have had. Matthew was just at the right age to realize Christmas was fun and exciting. Of course Kimberly was all ready for what she knew would be exciting. Kimberly was told not to come out of her room till 6 and she listened and didn't wake us up till 6:15a.m. (only for mom and dad's purpose). We finally woke up Matthew at 7 a.m. cause Kimberly couldn't wait any longer. After checking the cookies and milk (they were gone but noticed that Santa left a lot of crumbs), they ran around the corner to see what Santa brought. Matthew started grabbing things so excited and Kimberly just had her mouth wide open with a huge smile on her face. They were so happy! We tore through all the presents we had pretty quickly and then the kids played with things for a bit. Not long after we finished opening presents, my parents came to join us. It is tradition on Christmas Day for me to play host while my parents get to enjoy the kids and the food. So after my parents were bombarded by kids showing off what they got, we opened presents from them. Like always, they spoiled us rotten (oh I mean they showed their love). Thank you mom and dad for everything! Then it was time for Christmas lunch. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I get to make everything I want to eat and love to try new things. I think I made many bellies full this year. My in-laws stopped by and gobbled up some food as well and then we got to open more presents. I think we had everything open by 2:30 p.m. The living room was full. Our garage was full of boxes and wrapping paper. And we were exhausted. But it was all worth it.

Christmas night was full of Rockband (thanks to Santa) and Wii games. Good thing the kids crashed by 8 p.m. cause Brian and I were ready for some Wii competition! haha.

We hope everyone had just as enjoyable Christmas as we did. Good thing we have 1 whole year to do it all again!

Love and blessings to all!

Merry Christmas to all