End of July

I can't believe it is the last day of July. Where has the summer gone? It is funny that we say the end of summer is July but when school is going to start in 2 weeks, the summer is officially over.

We have had a good summer. We have been busy and have enjoyed the sun. We got to enjoy the 24th of July Pioneer Day. The day starts at the church with our Stake breakfast and Primary parade. The kids decorated their bikes and scooters this year and had a ball riding around the church. Matthew was determined to ride his big bike and he did great. He looked so big in that parade. Then we got to watch the Logan parade. We had a lot of fun because the cousins that live in town all joined us. It is great to have so many cousins live nearby. Then after cooling off at home for a couple hrs, we headed to Brian's brother's house in Tremonton for dinner and fireworks. More cousins and lots more fun. It is a long day but the kids have a great time.

Our other big news this month of July was our new purchase. Brian and I decided this year that we needed a van with our new addition arriving later in the year. We both bought our previous vehicles in December and learned that is a major expense to register at a bad time of year. So we were determined to find a van in July. Well after much research and looking around, we came across a nice Dodge Grand Caravan SXT 2008. It is the perfect size and we love it. It was a little heartbreaking to give up my 4runner but a van was needed. We have enjoyed every minute of and can't wait for when our baby arrives.

The pregnancy has had its moments this time. I had a scare with high blood pressure so we made sure to eliminate all stress out of my life (well as best as we could) and it helped a bunch. The sad thing was I had to give up my Primary Secretary calling. I can't believe how long I have been in the Primary. Kimberly was in nursery when I started. It hasn't been too bad being in Relief Society and Sunday school. I just miss the kids in Primary. Maybe in the future I will be back in the primary one day.

Here are some pictures:

Tell me he isn't cute. Sometimes he is a goofball in the bathtub.

Kids meal toys that the kids thought were so funny. They are pretty goofy.

Waiting for the 24th parade. We did great finding shade. haha

Our new van.

Next month: Ultrasound on baby, dr appts, family campout, and school starts!

Fun 4th of July

What a fun 4th of July weekend. Because of the 4th falling on a Sunday, we were able to celebrate Friday thru Monday. Friday around noon, we took the kids to my parents for the weekend. Grammie and Grampie wanted to have the kids for a couple days and this was the perfect weekend. The kids didn't even make it in the house... they went straight to the backyard because Grammie and Grampie had their swimming pool and a slide pool blown up. They were so excited. We hurried and put on swimming suits and watched them have a ball. Brian and I left and drove back home by way of Bear Lake. It was a perfect day to see the lake and have a famous shake. That night we watched Logan's fireworks from our truck. We haven't been able to do that in years due to Kimmy not liking fireworks and Brian working. They were great!

Saturday Brian and I did some major kid room cleaning (one of the reasons they stayed at Grammie's house) and checked out the Cruise-In. It was so peaceful in the house and we enjoyed every minute of it. The kids were having a great time too. They got to play at the parks and then hit the big Soda foam. Every year Soda's fire crew make a big foam pit for the kids to play in with their swimsuits. Matthew didn't last long. Some little boy threw foam on Matthew's head and he was done. So him and Grampie cleaned up and went and had free watermelon. Kimmy was enjoying the foam and Grammie finally was able to pull her out to get some watermelon too.

Sunday was pleasant. We haven't been to church without kids in a long time. I actually caught myself telling Brian to take just one of the bread. haha. I guess I am just used to having kids around. The kids got to visit with their Great Grandparents and have a good rest day.

Monday Brian and I zoomed up to Soda early for the big festivities. Soda starts their morning with breakfast and then the fun runs and then the big parade. For a few years I had the enjoyment of dodging horse droppings while marching in the parade. This year was a treat because we got to see my dad march. My dad is a VFW member from his time in the Army in the Vietnam war. We were pretty proud to see him right behind the flags carrying his rifle. What an honor. Of course their is lots of candy and it helps to know people in the parade. We definitely have our summer stash of candy now and it is just the start of parade season. Matthew wasn't too fond of the loud noises of the parade and spent most of the parade covering his ears. Kimberly went thru the same thing but this year she was very brave and was running everywhere getting goodies. She even got her and Matthew a couple frisbees. It is important to wave to everyone in the parade... and it helps to be extra cute. After the parade, there is a bunch of stuff to do in the park: eat, shop, visit, train rides, carnival games with toys, big boucy toys, mini ferris wheel, snow cones, etc. There are even basketball tournaments, volleyball tournaments, and softball tournaments that go on all day long. Lot of fun.

That's my dad in the middle!
Notice Matthew covering his ears... the end of the parade was still going on.

The train ride was a big hit.

Brian had to work that night so we hurried home in the afternoon but we did stay up to do some fireworks of our own. Kimberly used to love snakes but now they aren't very exciting. Poppers are always a favorite and this year the kids found out how much fun it is to throw them in the road and wait for cars to run them over. haha. But we watched some fun fireworks and enjoy visits from the neighbors.

I tell ya... it took us a couple days to recover from our busy weekend but it was sure a lot of fun.

Can't wait till the 24th.

Our Fun Weekend

We decided we needed a vacation but didn't want to spend a lot of money. So we decided a staycation in Salt Lake would do us good. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on the west side of town and it was fun. They had this great pool area. It had a kid play area (see below) and then it had a basketball pool, a lap pool, and a water slide for adults. It was a lot of fun.

After we checked in and played at the pool for awhile, we went to the Real soccer game. It was very warm but it was fun. The kids lastest for 3/4 of the game and then got bored. Oh well.

I think the kids favorite part was the hotel stay. They thought having a hotel room was great and they actually slept pretty good. It was a nice hotel and we had a lot of fun.

Saturday we woke up and played at the pool for another hour or so and enjoyed ourselves. Then we got dressed, checked out and went shopping. We grabbed a table at the Skybox and ate some yummy lunch while we watched the first half of the USA soccer game. Too bad they ended up losing in the end.

Then we made our way up the hill to Hogle Zoo. It is amazing how you can get away from your town and still run into people you know. We saw a family from our ward and some family friends. It was extremely hot so we were doing our best to stay cool in the misters all around the zoo. I have a bunch of pictures but didn't want to put them all on here. Below was one of the highlights for the kids:

After three hot hours at the zoo, we made our way to the Salt Lake Bees baseball game. That was a blast. We got to say hi to the Bumblebee and ate a bunch of food. We had great seats and sat in the shade the entire time. We would have loved to stay the entire game but after 9 p.m. and still in the 7th inning, we knew we had to get home. (early church and I had to teach)

I think we are still trying to recoop from our fun weekend but it was well worth it.

:-)

Some things in June

Well as you can see one of our big happenings was Kimberly losing her 3rd tooth. She was so proud because she pulled this one out all by herself. At 6:30 a.m. one morning, she woke me up to show me her tooth was half out. Now how long she had been working on it, I will never know. I told her great and to go back to bed. 5 minutes later she comes back in to show me her missing tooth. After the drama of the last tooth (lots of tears and fears), this was pretty smooth. She still has a loose top tooth and the day after this one fell out, she realized the same tooth on the other side is loose. I guess that means she is growing up.

Here is my little fishy Kimmy. She took swimming lessons at the Sports Academy the first two weeks of June. It was pretty crappy weather outside but perfect for swimming lessons inside. She was a little nervous her first day but then the fish in her came out and she was swimming great by the second day. I was very proud of her. I think she swims better than me and her dad now. haha.

Aren't they cute. They can't resist a good picture with Duke. Duke loves them too.

This was at my mom's for Father's Day weekend. We were outside scootering around the driveway when Brian started whipping the kids around at the end of the sidewalk. Kimberly isn't as daring and screamed and was ready to fall down. But Matthew has no fear, especially when daddy is invovled and my mom captured this great picture. I see Xgames in our future.

Other than the crappy weather, it has been a nice summer. We are enjoying sleeping in and watching World Cup Soccer. Brian is bummed that the games are when he is sleeping but he has been lucky to watch the replays at night.

Father's Day weekend was fun. We spent a couple days at my parents house and had a blast. Got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and some old neighbor friends. It was pretty weather and I think we hit every park in Soda (not too hard... there are only 4). Then Father's Day was fun. Brian was loved and I am sure he felt loved. We went over to Tremonton that afternoon to visit with his dad and enjoyed family time over there.

Still more June to go and we are busy.

Blessings till next post :-)

Happy 3rd Birthday to Matthew

Happy 3rd Birthday to my little Matthew Troy Peterson. I can't believe he is 3 already. Where has the time gone. He is no longer my baby, even though he still cuddles with me sometimes.

Matthew had a fun birthday weekend. Since his official birthday was on Sunday, May 30th; we had grandparents over on Saturday. We had a great day, even though it rained and hailed. We all went out to lunch and then opened presents. Then cake and ice cream and then a pinata. I had to get a pinata just for Matthew and Kimberly. I found a cute soccer ball pinata and we filled it full of candy. The pinata was so hard to break that Brian had to break it open after 20 tries by Matthew and 20 tries by Kimberly. But the kids loved it.

Matthew got some great presents and his big present was a Spiderman scooter. He seems a little small for a scooter but he is always on Kimberly's so we thought he could use his own. He loves it.

On Sunday after church he got to open more presents and was pretty happy to celebrate more birthday. After the weekend, we were all pretty much birthday'd out. But Matthew had a ball.

Then yesterday my mom came into town to play with the kids and me and we went and got some pictures done at the new place in the mall; Smiles. The kids were great. I had to laugh at Matthew. He takes pictures like his daddy. He will sit there good but he doesn't want to smile. We finally got him to say cheese and we did get a few smiles. I am looking at these pictures and just in awe at how big my kids are getting. I will post the pictures in a bit.

Blessings to all till next post :-)

May Happenings

I can't believe May is almost done. It has flown by. We have been busy this month. I wish I could say we have been enjoying the beautiful weather but I think we had only 2 days so far that were just beautiful. The rest of the month has been pretty wet and miserable. We even got down into the 30s for a few days and it felt like March. When will summer arrive?

Our big news of the month is the new bundle of joy we will be having this year. Brian and I went to the dr in our 10th week and we had a great appt. The baby looked so cute and we could see his or her heartbeat. I swear when Kimmy was in my tummy she looked like a kidney bean on the ultrasound but technology has changed and we were able to see this little person inside of me. We could see the little nubby arms and legs that are growing. My favorite part (besides only seeing one baby) was seeing the heart beating and pretty fast. Love that sight. That night we sat down the kids and told them the good news. Kimmy took 15 seconds to take in the news and then she got really excited. Matthew followed her example and got really excited but I don't think he understood. But later while we were discussing the baby, Matthew grabbed my shirt and looked down it. I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was looking for the baby. haha. I thought that was cute. I explained to him the baby was in my tummy and so now he asks me if my tummy hurts cause of the baby. He has asked me if the baby is in my bum and then he laughs hard. He is silly. But our bundle is new Dec. 21. Since I am having another C-section, I am planning on scheduling the baby a week before Christmas so I will be home for the holiday. I have already told Brian we are having Christmas done by October. He agrees.

The other big news is school is almost done for Kimberly. Her Kindergarten year went by fast and I am amazed at how she has grown. Last night we were invited to an award night and Kimberly got Top Reader in her class. We are so proud of her. She loves school and can't wait to be in 1st grade next year. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that fact. My little girl will be gone to school all day and even be eating lunch there. What am I going to do with her little brother? haha. He worships sissy and enjoys every minute with her (yes they fight but then they are playing two seconds later). We will just have to enjoy our summer and deal with that when the time comes.

Brian hopefully will start softball soon. It has been raining so much that we can never play. Brian is changing jobs at work. He accepted a position in singles (think Kraft singles cheese) on nights. Same pay as before but we at least will know his work schedule 2 weeks in advance, better than 2 days before. Good deal all around. The only big change for us is that he will work from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. That means I get to sleep in till 7 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. I think I can handle that. :-)

Hopefully summer will come soon so we can play outdoors all day long and enjoy the warm weather.

Blessings to all till next post.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I love mother's day. Not only because I am a mother but because we celebrate all mothers. I love my mother and all she does for me. I am a little sad this year because I can't be with my mom on mother's day. She is in Texas seeing her mother's gravesite and cleaning out her house. I should feel lucky though because some of my friends never get to see their mother's on mother's day. I love my mother-in-law. She is the sweetest lady and my 2nd favorite mom on this earth. I do get to see her on mother's day and that will be nice. I love my grandmother and called her to wish her a happy mother's day. She will be 80 years old in a week and we are glad she is still here on this earth.

I am blessed to be a mother. I have 2 beautiful children and a puppy (yes I am mommy to the puppy). My hubby spoils me as a mother. This morning before church my family let me open some presents. The children gave me the most appropriate card. You open it up and two bunnies start screaming mom in a bunch of different ways and it sounded like my children perfectly. Still makes me laugh. Of course my husband gives me a card that makes me cry. He is so sweet that way. Then I opened the present I had asked for... a book. Then my children gave me a gift they thought I would love... a snuggie. As cold as it has been, it was perfect. Then my hubby came in from the garage with my last present... a hammock. I am so excited for this hammock. I really don't have a place out in the backyard to hang out while the children play so this will be perfect. My grandfather had one at his house while I was growing up and I enjoyed the relaxation of it so I can't wait for my hammock and the warm weather.

Church was great. I enjoy being a mom at church and being in the Primary. The Primary kids (and me) sing a mother's day song to all in Sacrament. Then we get a gift and this year it was something I was craving... chocolate and starburst. Love it!

I hope all my friends and family enjoy this mother's day. I know I am enjoying every minute of it.

Happy Mother's Day!

Funny Story

So I have a funny story about the earthquake. April 15th around 6 p.m., northern utah/wyoming border (Randolph) had a 4.9 earthquake. According to the news, this earthquake was felt as far north as Jackson Hole. Well I had just sat down on the toilet in the bathroom when the toilet started shaking. At first I thought it was just me and I was having a little dizzy spell. So I grabbed onto the counter and looked at the towels in front of me and they were swaying. It was a little unnerving and lastest about 20 seconds. Brian was on the telephone at the time and the kids were playing outside. I asked Brian when he got off the phone if he felt it. He didn't and asked the kids if they felt anything and they didn't either. hmmm. So I turned on the news to prove I wasn't losing it and sure enough... Breaking news about the earthquake. So Brian did believe me but decided that he was going to tell people it about knocked me off the toilet. haha. My dad made the comment that I had a good bowel movement if I felt shaking. They are not funny!

Happy Easter 2010

Hope everyone had a nice Easter. We enjoyed the Easter Bunny, conference, and family time with Brian's family. Was a very nice.

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.