Family gatherings

Why is it when families get together, the women find a way to chat around the food, the men chat around the tv, and the children get more wild and run all over the house. I swear, my daughter seems to think when we are at a family member's house, she doesn't think I see everything she does. At least she knows (or at least I think she does) right from wrong. I know that will change in her upcoming years but for now I can be proud. As for Matthew, he is starting to come into his own and he loves to show off. It may take a few minutes for him to warm up but then he becomes the life of the crowd. And he really wants to be a big kid and do what the big kids do. Oh well.
At least we got to visit with family and especially my niece Rebecca and her hubby Justin. They just came in from Oklahoma where he was stationed. Now in a couple weeks, Justin will be heading to Korea while Rebecca stays here growing bigger and bigger. We just found out a week ago she is expecting. So that makes Brian and me great uncle and great aunt. I am too young to have great in front of a title. haha.
It is pretty fun to be part of a big family though. Many people to turn to for advice, comfort, and just plan chat time.
Blessings to all until next post.

Texas Goodbyes

What a trip. We just returned from Texas visiting families and seeing my Grandmother, Mere-Mere. A month ago Mere-Mere was given less than 3 months to live due to cancer. Sort of a shocker to the family. My grandmother is a strong woman and has lived by herself for the past 14 years while being a diabetic. She is still a very strong woman. She has made it a month since she was given her timeline (which only Heavenly Father really knows when her time is up) and she is still doing things on her own.

We were able to take a week and go down to see her. She was so happy to see us and really enjoyed her time with us. Matthew and Kimberly warmed up to everyone, but especially Mere-Mere. Matthew was playing ball with Mere-Mere the first night we were there. He also could say Mere-Mere and night night which were perfect for Mere-Mere to hear.

My mom has been there since Mere-Mere was given her timeline to take care of her. What a blessing my mother has been to my grandmother. A few years ago my mom decided to take classes and become a CNA. She worked in a nursing home for a couple years until she was physically unable to do it anymore. All her knowledge has come in handy while taking care of my grandmother. Watching my mom made me so proud of her. She is a strong woman. My mom would be CNA Pam while taking care of my grandmother but would be daughter Pam when she would talk personally to her mom. It was sweet to watch. Unfortunately, my mom is taking on a lot of stress and pressure with all this. Every night after she gets my grandmother to bed, she second guesses everything she did for the day, hoping she did enough. I feel so bad for her. Hopefully she will take some advice and talk to the hospice people about all her thoughts on taking care of my grandmother. One bright note for my mom was seeing her grandbabies. She really enjoyed us there.

The last night we were there was the hardest. Knowing that was more than likely the last time I was going to talk and see my grandmother on Earth was very hard to deal with. Just looking around the house and remembering all the memories I had there ... a lot to deal with. I was trying to be strong when telling my grandmother good bye but I still broke down. I love my Mere-Mere more than words can express. She has always been an amazing woman and someone to look up to. I just hope we have enough memories to tell the kids when they get older about their Mere-Mere. Not very many people get to know their great grandparents.

While we were in the big city of Killeen, we did do a couple other things. We got to go to a duck pond and feed the ducks. Between Matthew's eating the bread and feeding the ducks, Kimmy never stopping in her feeding; those ducks and fish were full when we left.

We also made it to visit the gravesites of my grandfather Jon-Jon and my cousin Troy. One main thing I wanted to do was get a picture of Matthew behind Troy's headstone because Matthew was named Matthew Troy after my cousin.

All in all it was a productive trip but one of the saddest. At least the weather was mostly warm and the kids were able to go outside to play. They enjoyed the fact they could go outside, wear shorts, and had to have sunscreen on. They were sure hoping it was good weather back home so they could continue their outside time. Lucky for them, it has been beautiful since we got home.

God be with you Mere-Mere till we meet again!

Blessings to all until next time.

Baby Animal Day

Every year Logan has a baby animal day out at the American Heritage place. It is a lot of fun for the kids to see baby animals and get to see, pet, and even purchase baby animals. There is a lot to do at baby animal days like food, treasure hunts, candy cannons, rodeos, easter bunny, crafts, food, etc. Brian's favorite part was the spiders, snakes, scorpions, and turtles. The kids had a blast even though it was a bit muddy. Enjoy the slide show of the baby animal day pictures.

Matthew and the tutu

Kimberly came out the other night with Matthew in her dance tutu. He thought he was pretty cute. So Brian took this video of him dancing. Kimberly, of course, is showing off as well.

Dance Recital Day

Now for the next big thing that happened in our little lives. Kimberly had her dance recital. She was super excited for it and you could tell she was a little more mature this year. She wanted to do good and she wasn't really nervous. Here are a few pictures (especially for you mom):

This was Kimberly pre-recital. This is the only time I can get her to do the curlers.

Matthew's excited for Kimmy's big day too. haha

All ready for the recital with hair done and makeup on.

Not the best quality of photo but I couldn't resist this one. Matthew was waiting (not so) patiently for his sissy to come out and dance.



I had to show this photo... Kimberly is in the dead middle in the front out of all these girls. The funny thing is that this is only half of the girls in her dance company.

That's Kimmy in the middle. She is doing her Twinkle Twinkle Little Star dance. The tutu is her absolute favorite.
After the show, her instructor gave all the girls a medal, a rose, and a certificate. Kimmy got the Good Technique award. Very proud of her.

This is Kimmy's two instructors. Marianne is on the left and she was her teacher this year and Vicki is on the right and she was her teacher last year. Kimberly really loves both of these ladies.

Here is Kimmy at home after it was all over with. She scored on flowers this year from daddy and mommy and matthew, grampie and grammie, and her rose from her teacher. She really loves flowers so she was so excited.


I had to show these. The picture on the left is the recital program. That little girl is Beth and she is in Kimmy's class. The picture on the right is one of Kimberly's pictures that they took a month ago. Pretty cute considering she was pretty sick that day.

All in all, Kimberly did really well. I am so proud of her. She smiled most of the time on stage. She didn't wave to us this year. She said she couldn't see us. haha. We did video the dancing (don't worry mom, we will bring it) and we ordered the DVD. Kimberly loves dancing and I think she will do this most of her childhood years. Thank you Marianne for a wonderful year of dancing at Memories in Motion Dance Company.

Now we get to slow life down for a week. I can't wait. Preschool is over at my house (today was my last day of teaching) and dance is done until August/September. I have one week were we don't have a lot of stuff. It will be nice for a little downtime... for all of us.

Blessings to all until my next posting. :-)

Kimberly's Birthday

Today was Kimberly's big 5 year old birthday. I can't believe my first born is 5 years old. The years go by so fast. Kimberly asked me today how do I know that she is 5 years old. I got to tell her I know because I gave birth to her. Then her Grampie and I told her how long that day we had to wait for her to be born (24 hrs from the time my water broke to when she came out vie emergency c-section).

Kimberly was excited for her birthday the second she woke up. We surprised her with fake balloons on her bed. The fake balloons are because Kimberly is not fond of real balloons. She is so afraid of them popping. So she begged me not to have real balloons so I made fake balloons with colored paper and ribbon. She loved them. After we got her ready for her day, we finished decorating the house by making 5's to put on the windows.

Kimberly was lucky to have her Grampie Toomer come spend the day with her. Unfortunately her Grammie Toomer was in Texas spending time with Mere-Mere (that story is another blog another time). Kimberly had so much fun with her Grampie. They got to have their favorite Chinese food for lunch. Grampie got to meet all her friends at her party. Grampie is probably glad he only had one child after the full house of kids we had here.

Kimberly invited 7 of her friends and cousins to come spend an hour and have a party. We played stick the doggie on the fire truck (similiar to pin the tail on the donkey). Then Kimberly opened her presents from her friends. Then they all got to blow out a candle in their cupcake after they sang happy birthday to Kimberly. After messy cupcakes and ice cream cones, the kids got to play with a pinata. They make them now where you don't have to beat them to break. You can just pull on the strings and the right string breaks open the bottom of the pinata. The only down fall was the 3rd kid found the right string so the other kids didn't get a chance to try and open the pinata. But they got candy and that made it all better. It was a lot of fun but wow... glad it is done.

Then Kimberly got to open presents from her Grandma and Grandpa Peterson, Grammie and Grampie Toomer, and mom and dad. She was so happy with everything she got. I think her favorite present of the day was her Hannah Montana guitar from Grammie and Grampie. She hasn't put it down all night. Daddy is going to have Hannah Montana stuck in his head all night at work. haha.

Overall it was a fun day. Matthew had a ball with all of sissy's friends and toys. He even got a guitar from Grammie and Grampie that plays music (leap frog). He didn't get his usual nap and boy he is tuckered tonight. I am so happy my daughter is growing up. I do hope another year older means she will grow up and lose some of her attitude. haha.

Below is some of the pictures from her birthday. Hope you enjoy.
Blessings to all until I return.

Day before the big birthday

I had to show off my creations for Kimmy's birthday... mainly so my mom can see since she isn't going to be around. Kimberly really wanted an Ariel cake for her birthday but for her party we went with cupcakes. Oh and Brian told me I gave Ariel a little cologen for Ariel's lips. haha. I will write back after the birthday with pictures.
Oh and there is a goofy picture of Matthew being silly!

Saturday of Fun Pictures

Saturday of Fun

Oh what a glorious Saturday. We finally left the cold valley and ventured to Salt Lake for a day of fun. When we got down there, it was already nice and warmer than Logan. Oh that was a good feeling. Brian dropped Kimberly and I off at the Energy Solutions Arena for Disney on Ice while they went to watch his nephew Douglas play soccer.

Kimberly and I had a great time at Disney on Ice. We wandered around to see all the neat stuff to buy.. luckily I talked her into a coloring book that only cost $5. Then we had to have some snacks before we took our seats. We had great seats and enjoyed the show. Kimberly loves each and every Disney show and this didn't disappoint. The only annoying part was the group of young adults that sat behind us making fun of the show and using bad language as they discuss their nightly adventures.

Brian and Matthew had fun watching Douglas play soccer. Brian said he was a lot of fun to watch and like always, Douglas was so excited to see one of his favorite uncles there to watch him play. Matthew had fun in the sun playing soccer and running around the park.

After the soccer game, Brian and Matthew headed to the Sportsman Expo. They had to park a long ways away and take a shuttle bus. They looked at a few things and had a hot dog before Kimberly and I got there. Kimberly and I took the Trax train from ESA to Sandy and she had a ball riding the train. She did tell me that the train needed some seatbelts. haha.

When we finally met up at the Expo, we had a fun time. We met some of the Channel 2 news crew and they loved Kimberly. Thought she was a sweet princess. Then we did the Youth Fair and learned more about the outdoors. In between booths, we checked out the Splash Dogs and constantly commented on our Duke and how he is no where close to being a splash dog. haha.

After a couple hours of the Expo, we left and headed to Temple Square. It has been awhile since Brian and I have been on Temple Square and Kimberly hasn't been since she was a baby. So that was a nice experience for her to see all the neat stuff in the visitor center. Her favorite part though was seeing the 4 brides taking pictures. It was a good chance for Matthew and Kimberly to run out their energy and play in the setting sun. Brian and I both said we have to get down there again without kids so we can go inside the beautiful temple.

That was our fun day. I will have to try and add some pictures here soon. I took them on my new phone but I am not sure how to get them from My Album to here. When I figure that out, I will add some pictures.

Our ventures this week include us getting ready for miss Kimberly's birthday!
Blessings to all until I return!

Tired of being sick

Ugh.. I am ready for the spring weather to come and get the colds out of here. All winter long I have had a cold. I figured it was a little cold that needed to go through my system and once it was gone, it would be gone for good. Oh no, I am not so lucky. My cold just keeps coming back. So I finally went to the dr and found out that all winter long I have had a nasty sinus infection that won't go away. So luckily the dr gave me some good drugs to zap it out of my system. Hopefully this works or I will have to go back for some serious tests. Now my kids have had one cold all winter long. This was just recently and they are now healthy again. My hubby has had a runny nose or sore throat a couple times this winter but they go away as fast as they come. Hopefully the sickness is gone out of house.

Let see... some random things going on in our house lately. Kimberly registered for Kindergarten this past week. She was so excited. She is more than ready to start Kindergarten. I don't want to brag but she is a pretty smart girl. The average assessment test score for pre-kindergarteners was around 28 points and Kimberly scored a 39. She was very proud.

Matthew is going to have a hard time while Kimberly is gone to school. He has a hard time when she is gone for an hour at dance and he is stuck at home. Oh well. He is starting to say more words and his latest is Run and Ball. He is so funny.

Brian is working and I am just being a mom. Nothing too new for us there. This weekend we are taking the kids to Salt Lake for some fun. Kimberly and I are going to Disney on Ice and Brian and Matthew are going to the Sportsman Expo. Should be a nice day too so that will be good.

Here are a few random pictures:

Sunday morning before church

Ice skating ... we ice skated and they rode in the sled. Matthew was not amused!

Cleaning day at our house. They each get a squirt bottle and a rag and they clean whatever I say.

Brian has a similiar picture to this at this age. They look alike!

TTFN